


Guardians of the Cure

by mandzipop



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms, The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Hybrids, Romance, Sexual Content, Vampires, Werewolves, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-15
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-07-25 11:09:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 35,992
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16196324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mandzipop/pseuds/mandzipop
Summary: A Delena story set in the future after Elena has finished med school. Word is out Damon is the cure. The Salvatore's have developed uncontrolled magical powers, probably due to taking the cure. Witches want the cure to increase their powers, vampires want it to either prevent Rebekah potentially destroying her sire line or to become human. How will they survive? To make matters worse, the return of an old foe comes back to haunt them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).**

**July 29th 2026**

Damon sat back in his chair and reviewed the CCTV footage once more. This was the seventh time he'd seen his old friend Frank in his bar in the last week. This time Frank had brought two more friends with him, no doubt more vampires. The problem was, Frank wasn't actually an old friend, more of an undesirable acquaintance really. He had been one of Katherine's minions from 1864. Instead of trying to vie for revenge at the 2010 Founders Day parade, he'd kept out of it. Damon was now beginning to wonder if Frank had the one who'd alerted Rose and Trevor to Elena's existence. In the past, this was something which had often puzzled Damon. When he'd asked Rose about it, she told him Trevor had discovered her whereabouts. If that were the case, Frank had probably told him and was possibly still protecting Katherine at the time. Considering the age of the vampires involved, Damon also suspected Frank was probably almost as old as Katherine had been herself.

All of this was why Damon was suspicious of Frank frequenting his five bars. If it had only been this bar, Damon wouldn't have been too concerned and maybe put it down to coincidence, after all it was once a bar popular with vampires. But Frank and his friends had been turning up in all six of Damon's bar's on and off for the last six months. Only now was it getting to the point where it was daily in one bar or another, and Damon now knew it wasn't just a coincidence. Not only that, even if Frank wasn't with them, the vampires he'd brought were in at least one of his bars every night.

Damon didn't want dangerous old vampires in his bar if he could help avoid it. When Damon was a vampire himself, he didn't really care about whether humans lived or died, unless he had an emotional connection to them. And as a human, he cared more, but again only if it affected him. Vampires in his bars had the potential to affect the lives of his clientele, which in turn could impact on Damon's profits. So far, as far as Damon was aware, nobody had died or been attacked by a vampire while they were in the bars. This Damon was almost certain of, although he couldn't discount a customer going home and being followed before being killed. But the lack of attacks was one of the things which had made Damon even more suspicious of regarding the motive behind Frank and his crew's nightly visits. Damon had wanted to stay as far away from vampires as possible considering he was the only known cure, which was one of the reasons they'd left Mystic Falls in the first place.

After Stefan died and Elena had woken from her sleep eight years earlier, she and Damon had decided to move to New York. One reason was for his safety, another was because he couldn't bear to live in the Salvatore house any longer now his brother was dead. The also moved to allow Elena to complete her medical training and for Damon to get to work on his bar. Damon bought his first bar fifteen years earlier after he killed the previous owner, an old friend called Billy. Albeit Billy was already dying as he was infected with werewolf venom after being bitten by Klaus first, therefore in Damon's eyes, it had been a mercy killing. The next day, he and a humanity free Elena had taken a trip to New York under the premise for Elena to have a little fun, which was a lie. The real reason was to find Katherine and the cure, however that day, he also set the ball in motion to buy Billy's.

Damon had cleaned the place up a little, enough to attract new clientele without initially alienating the old vampire crowd. That worked for a while, but after Damon became human again, it was completely impractical as word on the street was Damon Salvatore was dead. The place had been officially put up for sale, but was bought by Damon under Elena's name. This time he closed the bar and made it more suited to human's and not vampires. The bar became hugely successful, and over the entire eight years they'd lived in New York, he'd become the owner of five bars.

He never once visited any of the bars, they were all ran remotely, just in case he should be seen by an old friend or foe. A vampire pretending to be dead wasn't an uncommon occurrence. A vampire who was beginning looking older, was. And under no circumstances, were there any vampires outside of the circle of friends and allies who needed to know, were let in on the secret. At first, if he did bump into someone, he pretended he was still a vampire, but after eight years, he no longer could pass for twenty five. Admittedly, at the age of thirty three, he probably looked better than ever before. Maturity suited him, but any changes would be noticed by other vampires, and as the rumors had been circulating for many years about a cure for vampirism, any vampire he knew only had to take one look at Damon to know the rumor about the cure was not only true, but it Damon had been the one to take it.

This wouldn't have bothered Damon under normal circumstances. He'd been on this earth for almost a hundred and ninety years. Damon figured he'd lived long enough and he wouldn't have cared about dying, if he was alone. However he was not alone, Damon had responsibilities. Only a year after waking from her sleep, Elena had given birth to their daughter Jessica and within another two years, their son Benjamin had arrived. Fortunately, Damon did much of his work from home meaning he was able to be the one in charge of bringing up the children. A challenge which had originally daunted him after his treatment from his own father. However the moment he laid eyes on his children, he was in love and extremely protective. A year after Ben was born, he and Elena married and became the perfect little family. The only thing to blight them was the ever nagging fear of it being discovered that Damon was carrying the cure.

Another pressure arrived just over three months ago when Damon received a phone call from his sister-in-law Caroline, who wanted to know if Damon would allow the cure to be given to Rebekah Mikaelson when he was ready to die. After much discussion, Damon and Elena agreed, as their old foes, the Original's had turned into valuable allies over the years. Klaus had somewhat mellowed after his daughter was born. It was because of this daughter, Klaus and Elijah had taken their own lives to save her. So far only a few vampires so far knew about their deaths. Klaus had already been separated from his sire line, and Elijah's had already died out, therefore only those who needed to know did. The only Original left with a sire line was Rebekah and once she died, there was a chance all of the vampires linked to her would die with her. If indeed this did happen, the vampire species would be practically wiped out, except from what was left of Klaus's line. If anyone found out about Rebekah's plans for becoming human, Damon would be an obvious target for any vampire of her line who wanted to prevent Rebekah from getting her hands on the cure.

Rebekah and her new husband Marcel Gerard, had offered protection from their own vampires, but at first, neither Damon nor Elena had wanted their children bringing up around the supernatural, so they had refused. This was one of the reasons why they'd stayed in New York, even after Elena had completed her residency. But after Damon had been tracking the vampires going into his bar he was starting to feel a little uncomfortable and was having bad vibes about the situation. Eventually Damon had done some digging on Frank's sire line, and discovered Katherine was his sire, and Frank could well have discovered Damon was alive and be out for revenge against the Salvatore's. Now it looked like it was time to move.

After he first noticed Frank, the vampires who had been traveling with him had to be identified. With the help of Marcel, who had been creating a database of vampires from both surviving lines, Damon was able to identify the vampires frequenting his bars, and unsurprisingly discovered they weren't sired by Frank, instead they could be traced to Rebekah's line. Marcel had warned Damon any vampire who found out about the cure and was part of Rebekah's line would do anything to prevent her from taking it, which was why he'd created the database in the first place.

The problem with the cure was not the only thing which was becoming an issue regarding keeping the children away from the supernatural. Ever since Damon and Elena had become human again, they were different to how they'd been before they became vampires. At first the changes were only minor, being able to predict when someone unexpected was going to call, or things about to occur in the news before they happened. This progressed from if anything was lost, they only had to ask for it and whatever was lost would magically turn up. Elena spoke to Bonnie and found out this was exactly what happened to her when she first discovered she was a witch.

After some research, it turned out Damon and Elena were both descended from Silas's brother, who was also a very powerful witch. Their powers had lain dormant when they were first human, but the magic inside them which turned them into a vampire, furthered by the magic of the cure, triggered their powers to be released as humans. Damon believed this had happened to Katherine when she inhabited Elena's body, her dormant travelers magic was activated.

Damon and Elena they weren't the only ones showing magical abilities. Jess and Ben had also shown early signs of magic in their blood, and if what they could already do was anything to go by, they were already showing signs of potentially growing up to become extremely powerful witches.

When Jess was one, it was already clear she had magical powers. And as neither Damon nor Elena had any idea how to train themselves as witches, let alone teach children how to perform magic, an idea was formed with Caroline and Ric to start the Salvatore School for gifted children. Children who happened to be witches, vampires or werewolves, would be taught how to manage their magical abilities and to help guide them through life, while still getting an education. Damon donated the boarding house, and with help from many other wealthy benefactors, including Klaus Mikaelson, they were able to set the school up. As Jess was nearing seven, Damon and Elena had decided they were going to finally enroll her and she would get to grow up in the boarding house. But with the prospect of vampires following them, Damon didn't want to be too far away from her.

Their children still needed to be educated at the school as they were going to arouse a lot of suspicion if they weren't taught magic properly, which would put the entire family in danger. So the children had to go to the school. But Damon no longer wanted to be far from Jess and Ben. After discussing their options, he and Elena had decided to move back to Mystic Falls, although for their overall safety, he suspected the worst place he could move to was Mystic Falls itself.

In preparation Damon had had a house built on the old Gilbert house plot in a replica of Elena's old house. Damon hadn't told Elena this as it was to be a surprise. As far as she knew, they were going to rent until they found the right place. Two weeks earlier he'd been told by the builders, the house was almost ready, and just needed to be furnished. He'd managed to get away for the day and had a look at the house. The house looked almost the same, yet everything inside was more modern, especially the kitchen and bathrooms. The exterior however looked identical. When he stood on the porch, he remembered his and Elena's first kiss. However there was one more finishing touch required for the house.

Elena was finishing her final shift at the hospital that day, as she was already in the process setting up her own practice in Mystic Falls, in her fathers old surgery. She'd decided they needed a month to find a house to rent. The new school year started in early September and it was currently July. Therefore they planned on moving mid August, but Damon suspected they no longer had that much time. All of the signs were there. They were being hunted.

Damon picked up the phone and dialed the number to complete the house. After four rings a woman's voice answered the phone. "Damon, what's up?" she asked groggily.

"Sounds like someone's been up all night." Damon replied.

"Rough night." the woman said sarcastically. "Enough of the chitchat, what do you want?" she sighed wearily.

"Can you do the cloaking spell from New Orleans?" Damon asked. "They've gotten closer."

"Did you tell Marcel?" she asked.

"Not yet." Damon told her. "I need the cloaking spell for the house in Mystic Falls first. I'm not powerful enough yet and I don't have the experience to pull one off. Even if I were there I wouldn't be able to cloak anything that big." he explained. "Remember Freya, it's in Rebekah's interests as much as mine."

"Fine." Freya sighed. "I can do a temporary one until Vincent can get out there and fix you guys up with something a little more permanent. When do you need it for?" she asked.

"I'm still in New York. We haven't packed yet." Damon told her. "But hopefully we should be there by tomorrow."

"Does Elena even know?" she asked.

"She knows some of it. But they've upped the visits in the last two weeks. I think they're on to us. I'm going to tell her as soon as I've finalized most of the details." Damon said.

"Well I better let you get to it." she said. "I'll have the house cloaked by tonight."

"Thank you Freya." Damon sighed. "Say high to Keelin for me."

"No problem. I will." Freya replied. "Look Damon, just protect my sister's chance of happiness." she added before they both hung up.

Damon only met Freya after Klaus and Elijah died, and immediately decided she and her wife Keelin were the the most level headed members of the Mikaelson clan. Although her not being raised by Esther and Mikael might have helped her become more level-headed, even if the witch who did raise her was a crazy ass aunt. Elena and Keelin had bonded over their mutual love of medicine, albeit mostly from a distance.

Damon and Elena had never taken the children to Mystic Falls, as they deemed it too supernatural. New Orleans was a completely different level of craziness, Damon and Elena had insisted the Salvatore's would never set foot there unless absolutely necessary. That place was teeming with vampires, witches and werewolves. Instead, family and friends came to visit them.

Since Klaus and Elijah died, Marcel and Rebekah had become frequent visitors as the owned a nearby penthouse. Other than them, Hope, Caroline and Kol, the children had never met any other vampires. And even then the children were kept in the dark about their supernatural friends. Up until then, the children still thought vampires were fictional characters who they associated with Halloween.

At that thought, Damon's heart sank. All of the lives, Damon and Elena had sought to keep the children innocent about the supernatural world for as long as possible. He and Elena knew at some point, the innocence would be lost, especially as theirs and their children's magic grew. However Damon and Elena had managed to so far find excuses for them being different. They'd kept the kids away from children of their own age. Instead mixing them with older children who knew about magic and knew better to not say anything to them so they didn't know they were different to everyone else.

Damon picked up his phone and began to type out a text to send to Marcel. Once Damon had started becoming suspicious of the visits from the vampires, not only had Marcel been tracking them, but a contingency had been put in place to get some of Marcel's most trusted guys into Damon's bars to keep an eye on the situation. They would infiltrate the group and see what they could discover. Damon typed the words _Code Red_ and hit the send button.

The final person he wanted to contact before Elena was Caroline. She'd returned from her travels in Europe and had been in on helping rebuild the Gilbert house, along with Jeremy. The house would need cleaning with some basic furniture until Elena could decorate and shop when she got there. Damon had kept some of the old Salvatore furniture in storage, including his huge bed. Even if it wasn't to their taste, for the time being it would have to do. Damon and Elena were very house proud, but on this occasion, necessity would have to trump aesthetics, although deep down, he hoped they would keep his old bed. He'd arranged this with Caroline as other than himself and Elena, he didn't trust anyone other than his sister-in-law to clean the house up to his own impeccable standards.

Once he'd finished texting Caroline, he looked at the clock. Elena would be home within the next ten minutes. Normally, by now the kids would be in bed and he's have dinner ready with a glass of wine laid out for her when she got in. Instead, Damon had been too busy reviewing the footage of the bars to notice the time flying by. He'd put the kids to bed on time, but he hadn't had chance to make a start on dinner. These were the times he wished he were still a vampire. Chopping food was a hell of a lot slower as a human. Instead, he simply picked up the phone and ordered pizza for them both. After that he poured them each a glass of wine and waited for her to get home.

Right on time, Elena walked in from work and kicked of her shoes. As usual Damon greeted her with a kiss and a glass of wine. However the moment Elena didn't smell food, she knew something was wrong. When Damon led her over to the dining room and she saw a gun on the table, her worst fears were confirmed.

"Okay, what's going on?" she asked, raising and eyebrow.

Damon took a deep breath. "I think word got out about me." he told her. "Remember when I told you about the vampires frequenting the bar?" he asked as Elena nodded. "Well, there's now more of them and they're all from Rebekah's line" he said. "They're in almost every bar, every night. And it's not just Frank."

Elena stood up and ran her fingers through her hair and began to pace up and down. A trait he'd noticed being something she did when she was frightened. "We need to get out of here." she said looking up at him in a panic. "If they know all of your bars, they might have tracked down where we live too." her eyes widened with fear. "Damon, we need to leave! Like now!"

Damon stood up and held her gently still by her shoulders. "Hey, listen to me." he said softly. "The contingency plans have been put into place." he assured her.

"How?" Elena frowned. "We haven't even looked at places to rent yet. We've got nowhere to live?"

Damon smiled. "Oh yes we have." he told her. "I've already got that covered. We just need to eat dinner, pack a few things, wake the kids up and get in the car."

"Dinner?" she asked. "What dinner?"

"I ordered pizza." Damon replied sheepishly. "I was too busy checking out the footage at the bars..." he started as the doorbell rang. "And that'll be dinner."

"I'll get it!" Elena sighed as she went to answer the door. After a few seconds Damon heard Elena's voice calling him. "Damon, have you got another five dollars, I don't have enough in my purse." she shouted. Damon walked out of the dining room to give the Elena the money when he saw one of the vampires at the door delivering the pizza.

"Hang on, I'm a dollar short." Damon lied as he went back into the dining room and picked up the gun which was already loaded with wooden bullets. Damon had been loading the gun while watching the footage earlier. He slipped it into the back of his jeans and went to the door to greet the vampire. "You take these into the kitchen, I'll finish up here." he told Elena as he took the pizza from the hands of the vampire and handed it to Elena, who left them. Damon paid him the money as he realized the vampire was scouting to see if Damon did live there and had indeed aged. "Hey!" Damon called out as the vampire turned to leave. "You forgot your tip." he said pulling the gun out of his jeans. The vampire turned around and Damon shot him in the head, causing the vampire to collapse unconscious.

Damon then shot the vampire in the heart and waited for the telltale signs of gray skin to confirm he was dead before Damon managed to pull him inside the door, closing it behind him.

"What the..." Elena cried out as she ran in from the kitchen, slapping a hand over her mouth when she saw the dead vampire in the hallway.

"Fuck the pizza!" Damon snapped. "Grab the kids. We need to leave now."

"What are you going to do?" Elena asked.

"I'm gonna throw the body into the basement." he told her. "Can't let the kids see it."

"They're going to see vampires sooner or later." Elena warned as she started to climb the stairs.

"I'd prefer later." Damon called after. "Even if it's just for twenty four hours." he said sadly as he pulled the vampire corpse along the hallway before pushing him down into the basement.

  
  


  
  


 


	2. Chapter 2

** Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon). **

It had been twenty two hours since Damon had shot the vampire posing to be the pizza guy. Since then, Damon and Elena had quite literally pulled the kids from their beds and drove off into the middle of the night after packing only the most minimal of items. Damon had contacted Marcel who would have one of his guys come torch the house and garage after they'd gone. Fortunately for Damon, his old blue Camaro still resided in Mystic Falls, ensuring its survival. For now he was driving a slightly more child friendly BMW X5.

Damon and Elena had decided to not drive directly to Mystic Falls just in case they were followed, which was why it was taking so long. Damon and Marcel had planned this between only them. Not even Elena nor Rebekah were allowed to know the route. They changed cars at the side of the road just outside Pittsburgh, Washington and Richmond, hoping to evade any CCTV footage. Their final stop before Mystic Falls was Duke University to visit Elena's birth mother's old office.

The current Head of Anthropology, Vanessa Monroe was leaving her post, and when she came to clear out her stuff, she'd discovered a package of Isobel's addressed to Elena, hidden away in a secret cupboard. It must have lain there for almost twenty years as Isobel turned into a vampire in 2007. Vanessa had contacted Ric who had told her he'd ask Elena to pick it up in the next couple of weeks. As they approached Durham, they stopped off at a car rental for Elena to drive to Duke alone. In the meantime, Damon would feed the kids who were excited to be on and adventure, however at the same time were completely exhausted. Fortunately, Mystic Falls was less than a three hour drive from Duke, four with kids, so once Elena was done with Vanessa, they would head straight to Mystic Falls, and hopefully to get some rest.

As Elena pulled up outside of the Anthropology department at Duke, memories came flooding back to a time when she was still with Stefan. She Damon and Ric had gone to search through Isobel's stuff to find out about werewolves. It had been the start of their Mikaelson problems, and even now, returning to Mystic Falls was possibly as a result of helping another Mikaelson. The first time to discover the sun and moon curse, triggering Klaus's werewolf side, but now Elena knew they were genuinely doing right by someone. Rebekah had never wanted to be a vampire, and for this, Elena had discovered a mutual understanding with the Original sister in her quest to become human again.

Elena knocked on the door to Vanessa's office as the former grad student opened it to greet her. Age had been kind to Vanessa, who must have been in her early forties. A few lines around the eyes, which no longer held the wonderment of youth. Her hair was shorter and still the same color, although Elena suspected it was no longer fully natural as she could see the occasional gray hair. Vanessa smiled warmly as Elena entered her office.

"Thank you for stopping by." Vanessa smiled. "It's a long way to come from New York." she said. "I could have posted it."

"It's fine, I'm not living in New York anymore." Elena replied, choosing not to elaborate further.

Vanessa didn't question Elena's evasiveness, knowing sometimes in the world of the supernatural, the less a person knew, the safer they would be. "Is it true both Salvatore brothers died?" she asked, changing the subject.

"Yes." Elena lied pretending to look sad. "I wasn't there when it happened, but they both died in the gas explosion." she said.

"Pity." Vanessa shrugged. "He had a temper, but Damon Salvatore was really hot. But weren't you dating his brother?" she frowned.

"Something like that." Elena nodded with a grimace at Vanessa's comment about Damon. Elena hated being reminded of other women finding her husband insanely attractive, which seemed to have only gotten worse with age. "So, what was it you found for me?" she asked trying to change the subject.

"Oh right." Vanessa laughed as she went to her desk and pulled out a package which looked like it was a large book. "I don't know what's in this package, but clearly she left it for you. There was a hidden cupboard behind one of the wooden panels, in the closet and she hid it in there. When she left it, I don't know. Maybe she thought she'd get it back for you when the time came or by not giving it to you she was protecting you. Who knows?" Vanessa laughed as she handed the package to Elena.

"Thank you Vanessa." Elena smiled as she took the package and held it in her arms, making no move to open it, although she could see Vanessa was itching to find out what was inside almost as much as Elena was herself. However Elena was not going to offer the Professor the satisfaction of finding out what Isobel had left her. "I probably should open it alone." she nodded. "If Isobel was trying to protect me, then it might be better the less people know about this package and its contents."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Vanessa sighed before opening a drawer and pulling out a card. "But if there's anything in there you want help with, then don't hesitate to give me a call." she told her, pressing the card into Elena's hand.

"I will, I promise." Elena lied, knowing there wasn't anything Vanessa could tell Elena, which Ric and Caroline weren't already aware of. "Thank you Vanessa. Good luck in your new job." she smiled.

"Thanks Elena, bye." Vanessa called out after her before Elena rushed out and got back into the rental car.

Although she was desperate to open the package, Elena knew she needed to wait until they reached Mystic Falls and the kids were in a bed. They needed to move as quickly as possible for their own safety. She knew Damon had been up to something recently and he'd been suspicious that the vampires in his bar were following him. By the time they'd realized there was a problem, it was too late for a cloaking spell. Therefore Damon had told her he and Marcel had cooked up a contingency plan for them to escape at a moment's notice, which was why the house in New York needed to be torched. They couldn't have a witch get hold of anything which could be used in a locator spell. So Damon had kept an itinerary of every item in the house which would be needed, yet have to be burned. Anything else of value which was irreplaceable, or able to be bought in duplicate, was kept in storage in Mystic Falls. Mostly these were priceless artifacts or toys for the kids. Every time they bought them a toy, they had to buy a second and have it sent to their storage locker via Ric. They'd also laid aside some duplicate clothes, just in case they didn't have time to pack anything. This was why they'd been able to literally grab the kids, jump in the car and go.

When Elena arrived back at the car rental company, she text Damon who arrived ten minutes later with two happily fed children. They all got out of the car and the kids ran up to Elena shouting mommy with happy voices. Elena bent down and gave them both a hug.

"Guess where dad took us for dinner?" Jess asked as Elena noticing Damon looking to the sky innocently.

"McDonalds!" both kids cried out excitedly in unison.

"Look mommy, we got Happy Meals." Ben added with a huge smile on his face and a bag with a toy in it.

Elena threw daggers at Damon. "You didn't." she growled. Elena never let the children eat fast food.

"I surveyed the options and took a democratic vote." Damon nodded diplomatically. "Plus you only live once." he shrugged as Elena folded her arms. "And I've got you a big Mac and fries, no pickles in the car." he added with a small smile on his face.

Elena stood up, trying unsuccessfully to suppress a smile. "Have I ever told you how much I love you Damon Salvatore?" she asked as Damon walked over to her.

"Once or twice." Damon grinned as Elena stood up and greeted him with a kiss. "Although I am still hungry." he whispered into her ear. "And I'm not talking about for food either."

"Damon!" Elena admonished him, although it was only halfheartedly. "The kids." she said quietly.

"I can wait until we get home." Damon nodded. "But once they are in bed and asleep, I intend for us to get to know every inch of our new place. Very intimately." he growled.

Elena smiled seductively. Although they'd been together for almost sixteen years, with almost a five year hiatus while she was placed in the magical beauty sleep by Kai Parker, Damon and Elena still acted like teenagers in a new relationship, they still couldn't keep their hands off each other. Just as they were about to kiss they heard a coughing noise behind them.

"Mom, dad!" Jess called out as they turned to see their daughter frowning with her arms folded. "Eww, you guys are disgusting." she shook her head as she grabbed Ben's hand and dragged him back to the car. "I think we're the most grown up in this household!" she muttered to her brother, causing Damon and Elena to laugh as they watched their children climb into the car.

"Well that's us told." Damon laughed as he walked around to the drivers seat. "You eat before it gets cold, I'll drive." he told her as Elena got into the passenger seat and tucked into her food.

Four hours and a restroom stop later they passed the Mystic Falls sign.

"Are we there yet?" Jess asked.

Elena turned to the back seat. "Yeah, we're nearly there sweetheart." she said quietly, noticing Ben was asleep. "Just a few more minutes, right Damon?" she asked turning to her husband.

"About ten minutes." he replied as they passed over Wickery Bridge.

Soon the town loomed large as familiar and not so familiar buildings passed by. Neither Damon nor Elena had been back for eight years, however very little had changed. As they got closer, they noticed a new housing estate which wasn't there before, but mostly it was the same. However the biggest surprise for Elena was when they pulled up outside 2104 Maple Street. There the old Gilbert house stood, in its full glory, as if she'd never burned it down. Elena immediately burst into tears.

"Mom, are you okay?" Jess asked.

"Mommy?" Ben yawned, waking up at the sound of his mother sobbing. "Why are you crying?"

"Did you do this?" Elena asked Damon between sobs.

"Would it be a bad thing if I said yes?" Damon replied softly.

Elena removed her seat belt and threw her arms around Damon's neck. "I love you." she sobbed as Damon tried to hug her back, but instead got caught up in his own seat belt.

"Um...Elena, can't breathe here." he choked as Elena let go and started laughing. "Did I do good?" he asked as he untangled himself.

"The best." Elena grinned.

"Is this our new house?" Ben asked.

Elena peered into the back seats. "It is." she replied.

Jess frowned. "Like a forever house?"

"I hope so." Elena replied as she looked at Damon. "What do you think daddy?" she winked. "Do you promise us forever?" she asked.

"For as long as forever can be." Damon corrected her. "Anyway, forever is subjective. Who knows, some long lost relative might leave us a huge mansion in some exotic place. And let me tell you, if that happens, I'm not saying no to a freebie pad in the sunshine over a house in Mystic Falls." he said as he waved his hand at the Gilbert house.

"Damon!" Elena glared at him.

"You know I don't like promising forever." Damon shook his head. "Not after the last time."

Elena turned to the children. "Nothing is truly forever." she told them. "If it were up to me and your dad, you would live with us forever, right Damon?" she glanced over as Damon raised an eyebrow. "But one day you'll grow up and want to move away, go to college, have a home and family of your own. There's no such thing as a forever house. But this will be our new home, as long as it is right for all of us." she told them. "Is that okay?" she asked.

"Does that mean if we can't fit all of our toys in there, we have to live some place else?" Ben frowned.

"I'm sure we'll find a way to make them fit." Elena said. "Shall we go see?" she asked.

"Yay." the kids shouted out in unison.

Damon and Elena got the kids out of the car. They waited outside while Damon parked the SUV in the garage before joining them. Damon and Elena stood, holding hands with the children as they looked up at the porch. They climbed the stairs, Damon unlocked the door and ushered the kids inside.

"Mom and I will be there in a minute." he told them as they ran into the house.

"It looks exactly the same." Elena smiled at him. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asked.

"I wanted it to be a surprise." Damon replied. "Preferably a good one." he added, sounding hopeful.

"The best." Elena whispered.

"Good, so I don't have to feel guilty anymore?" he asked, fluttering his eyelashes.

Elena laughed. "When was the last time you felt guilty?" she asked.

Damon turned around and thought for a moment. "Oh I don't know, but I do remember feeling guilty about this." he said as he turned to face Elena and cupped her face in his hands and kissed her. After a few moments, they broke away. "Remember?" he whispered.

"How can I ever forget?" Elena smiled as Damon opened his mouth, about to say something. "Just don't go there." she shook her head laughing. "So are you going to invite me in and give me a guided tour?" she asked. Damon walked in and stood at the doorway, preventing Elena from entering. "What are we twelve?" she laughed.

"I did make some minor alterations to the original house." Damon warned her. "The rooms are bigger, and there is a downstairs study." he told her. "The kids bedrooms are where Jeremy's and Jenna's bedrooms were. They have a joint bathroom. Your old room has it's own bathroom and so does our bedroom. It doesn't look it, but it's a lot bigger than the original house." he explained. "Above the triple garage, there is an apartment for exclusive visitors. They've already been invited in." he winced.

"So Marcel and Rebekah had something to do with this?" Elena asked, folding her arms.

"It only took three months to build, so what do you think?" Damon asked.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Fine." she sighed. "As long as it's not furnished to Marcel's taste." she complained as she walked through the door.

The sight in front of Elena almost took her breath away. The furniture was different, but practically everything else was almost the same, although a little more modern. Every room brought back memories, and so did the furniture itself. The couches from the Salvatore parlor were now in the living room. The huge mahogany Salvatore dining table replaced the Gilbert one. There was nothing Elena wanted to change.

"Come upstairs." Damon told her as she followed him and the screeching of children's voices.

The first room she entered was what would have been Jeremy's old room and was decorated in a Spiderman theme. Like most little boys his age, Ben had been obsessed for about a year with superheroes, especially Spiderman, which brought a smile to Elena's face. For some reason, superheroes were timeless. And in some respects, when she first met the Salvatore's, and found out they were vampires, her naive seventeen year old self had viewed Stefan as some kind of superhero.

Damon on the other hand had started off as the villain in her story, or so she thought. Over time he'd been a pain in the ass, but as hard as they tried not to, they'd fallen for each other. Damon didn't need powers to be her hero, he just had to be himself. Elena realized this even more when she became a vampire herself. Once she understood vampirism, she understood the Salvatore's and realized her connection was with Damon not Stefan. In the end, Damon had become her husband, the father to her children, and had now rebuilt the very house she burned down. An achievement even beyond the capabilities of Superman.

Ben's room might have been covered in Spiderman, but the screeching was coming from another room, which turned out to belong to Jess. Her daughter was a huge fan of Harry Potter. Damon and Elena had recently noted the irony considering she was a real witch and due to enroll at a real life Hogwarts, although at this point Jess was completely unaware of her future schooling arrangements. Damon had the room decorated with a four poster bed in the Gryffindor colors of red and gold. The screeching was the children cursing each other with the Avada Kedavra spell. For parents of human children, no second thought would have been given to children playing like this. However when said children were powerful witches, Elena wasn't sure whether the idea learning killing curses was a good idea. To her it was like a young child playing a game where they would kill people with guns, and then go on to think it was normal to do it when they got older. For witches, this was something similar. Initially innocent, but had possibilities to lead onto something sinister.

"I hope Ric doesn't teach them about dark magic." Elena whispered.

"Severus Saltzman would never do a thing like that." Damon said sarcastically.

"I thought he was Alaric Dumbledore." Elena whispered back.

"Good point." Damon agreed. "I always suspected Dumbledore kept bourbon in his office." he winked before turning his attention to his children and putting on his sternest fatherly voice. "Okay, today's adventure is over for now. Time for bed. We've got lots to do tomorrow." he told them as Elena led Ben to his room while Damon stayed with Jess to put her to bed.

"Dad." Jess said. "Why did we leave suddenly?" she asked.

"Your mom is setting up a practice here, and we enrolled you into a local school months ago." Damon told her. "We've been planning this move for a long time." he said. "It was always going to be a surprise."

"But you got us up in the middle of the night and we've changed cars lots of times. I'm not an idiot, something is wrong." Jess insisted.

"Nothing is wrong." Damon assured her. "Your mommy didn't know I was building this house for her. You see, I rebuilt the house she grew up in. It is in the same spot and is almost exactly the same. When it was finished, I saw the pictures of the house and your bedrooms, and I got a little excited and couldn't wait to show you all." he lied.

"Okay." Jess replied as she climbed into bed, even though the tone of her voice made it perfectly clear she didn't believe him. "Goodnight daddy. Thank you for my perfect bedroom." she said. "I'm not saying I believe you, but if you've got another reason and you can't tell me, I understand." she sighed. "I know you'll do anything to protect us."

"Goodnight Jess. I love you too." Damon whispered, kissing Jess on the head before heading towards Ben's room.

Once they'd finally gotten the kids to bed, Damon took Elena downstairs and to the kitchen, where he pulled out a bottle of wine for Elena and a beer for himself.

"Are you planning on getting me drunk Mr Salvatore?" Elena raised an eyebrow.

"Not exactly." Damon smiled. "I was thinking maybe a dance first and then we try my room or yours." he smiled.

Elena frowned. "We have a bedroom each?" she asked. "You planning for any potential divorce?"

Damon looked at her thoughtfully. "Do you remember when we first got together?" he asked.

"Of course." Elena smiled. "How can I forget?"

"We spent the night at the boarding house." Damon said. "But we waited over six months before we were together again. And by then, you'd burned this house down."

"And..." Elena narrowed her eyes.

"We never spent the night together in your room. In your bed." Damon said sadly.

"Well, not entirely. You spent enough nights in my bed remember." Elena smirked.

"But they were completely innocent." Damon protested.

"Your thoughts were entirely pure?" Elena raised an eyebrow.

Damon thought for a moment. "Surprisingly more often than you'd think, they were, I only did things to wind you up because it was so much fun." he chuckled. "My focus was to protect you." he said as he wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into him. "It was this..." Damon pointed to Elena's heart. "Which made me fall in love with you. Not this." he added softly stroking her face before resting his forehead against hers. "So you see, although the dream of making love to you did cross my mind once or twice, I couldn't let it cloud my judgment when it came to your survival." he whispered. "Which meant your room remained pure."

"Maybe in your thoughts." Elena grinned a sly grin. "But mine weren't." she whispered as she crossed her arms behind Damon's neck and kissed him.

"Oh yeah?" Damon raised an eyebrow. "When?" he asked.

"Sometimes it would be as a result of a dream about you, I'd wake up needing...relief." Elena told him as Damon nodded with a knowing smile.

"I've had plenty of those about you." he smirked.

"Then there were a couple of times when my thoughts drifted to you, and things we had done..." Elena continued.

"What things?" Damon frowned.

Elena took a deep breath, not sure whether to share this with Damon, but decided it might be fun to tease him about the time she was in love with him but was pretending to herself it was just a physical attraction.

"There was one time when I'd been working out in Ric's loft. And you decided to show me how to rip out a vampire's heart." she told him.

"Oh yeah, I remember that." Damon smirked.

"Well, later that night, I remember thinking how I wouldn't have protested if you'd have slipped your hand down my panties." Elena said. "So I had to use my own imagination." she added.

"It looks like we're going to have to rectify that." Damon smirked. "You show me what you did when you used your imagination, and I'll show you the way to a vampire's heart again. But this time with your imaginative improvements. How does that sound?" he asked.

"In my old room?" Elena asked.

"Up to you." Damon shrugged. "Maybe you could show me what you did in your room, and I'll let you know what would have happened without the need for imagination in mine." he suggested.

"Are you telling me you've managed to replicate my old room?" Elena asked.

"There were enough pictures and footage from various sleepovers to completely recreate your old room." Damon smiled smugly. "Even down to your diary being behind that painting of a horse, although the replacement picture is somewhat improved." he shrugged.

"So not entirely identical." Elena raised an eyebrow.

"I decided to rebuild the house years ago. As part of the deal for my blood, I asked Klaus for a favor." he told her.

"You asked Klaus to paint a picture as a housewarming gift?" Elena choked.

"His stuff costs a lot to buy these days. He's very sought after as an artist. Think of it as a financial investment." Damon explained. "I think e knew he was going to have to die for quite a long time, and I guess he wanted to do something nice for once." he shrugged. "Anyway, it's a huge improvement on the last one."

"Can I have a look?" Elena asked.

"Don't you think you ought to find out what Isobel left you first?" Damon asked.

Elena rolled her eyes. "Fine." she sighed as she retrieved the package from the dining room. They sat down at the island in the kitchen. Elena opened the package which contained an envelope and a book. Elena first of all opened the envelope, and pulled out the letter from inside before starting to read it out loud.

_Dear Elena_

_I know you don't think much of me, and I don't blame you. If you are reading this, you survived Klaus's ritual. I'm sorry for my deception, however Klaus compelled me and there was nothing I could do about it. He told me I couldn't tell you about his plans, or try and stop them, but he never compelled me not to leave you anything should you live. I know I won't survive whatever Klaus has planned for me, but if you do, what is in this book may become important to you in the future._

_When I did research into our family and discovered we were descended from Katherine, I was surprised to find out she should have been a witch, although it appeared she never practiced magic. As I went through the history of our tree, I discovered evidence of potentially four doppelgangers, including yourself. The most recent one prior to yourself was born in 1846, called Sarah Drummond._

"Wasn't that the same year Stefan was born?" Elena frowned.

"Yeah." Damon replied. "Qetsiyah said she'd seen history repeat itself as the doppelgangers got together, which I'm guessing means there should have been a matching doppelganger each time around." he said. "She said she'd seen them get together time and time again."

"So Stefan's doppelganger wasn't me or Katherine." Elena asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Obviously not." Damon nodded. "And Tom Avery must have been your pre-destined love." he winked.

"Pre-destined by magic or not, didn't make him my soulmate." Elena smiled. "I got you instead." she kissed him on the lips.

"A proven upgrade." Damon grinned. "Anyway, back to the letter, it's just getting interesting." he said, as Elena continued to read.

_I managed to find a drawing of the father of Katherine's daughter, his name was Matey, and I made an interesting discovery. He looked very much like Stefan Salvatore and was born the same year as Katherine. I thought it was a little odd therefore I did some research into the Salvatore tree and found a distant cousin of theirs called Tom Avery, who is also identical to Stefan, making him a doppelganger. And coincidentally he was also born the same year you were. I suspect there is some coincidence meaning you are destined to be with your doppelganger because there does seem to be an effect on the power of the children born of the doppelgangers, depending upon whether both parents were doppelgangers or only one parent was a doppelganger._

_The father of Katherine's child was also descended from a family of witches, although like Katherine, he himself didn't appear to be able to practice magic. Katherine and Matey's daughter however, was able to practice magic although by all accounts she wasn't very powerful._

_After Katherine was banished, Matey went onto marry another woman who had more children by him, which is where the current Salvatore line comes from. Those children were all extremely powerful witches._

_Sarah was my great, great, great, great grandmother, and a very powerful witch. Her children were not born of the Salvatore line like Katherine's child was because Stefan had become a vampire. It also appears the parents of the doppelgangers have very little in the way of magical abilities. From my research, children of one doppelganger and a non-doppelganger, tend to be powerful witches. This is a warning should you have children with anyone other than Tom Avery, because you and Stefan will never be able to have children. This means your children will probably become very powerful witches. I also noted the siblings of the doppelgangers were almost as powerful as the children produced by one doppelganger and a non-doppelganger. Damon seems to have been an anomaly, however if he was brought up to fear magic, he could have suppressed his powers. Fortunately, because he's a vampire, that should be a non-issue for you, because the way you are together, suggests it is simply a matter of time before something does happen between you. Call it a mother's instinct._

_Anyway, I digress._

_I have included the witch lineage in the back of the book, grading them on how powerful they are based on historical knowledge. The book itself is the grimoire of Sarah's oldest and most powerful child, Mary, who we are descended from. The kind of spells in this grimoire are extremely potent and most witches wouldn't stand a chance of being able to use them without a lot of help from channeling, and even then the magic would kill them._

_It is highly unlikely you will ever be able to perform magic, unless there is some kind of currently unknown trigger. I wouldn't go looking for it, because if you do, your children's magic could possibly become even more powerful and too much for you to cope with. It will be hard enough for you to manage the magic of your children if you don't trigger it, but at least you have a friend in Bonnie who can help. Your children will be far more powerful than any Bennett witch could ever wish to be, but she should be able to help a little._

_As your mother, I felt it was my duty to tell you this information for the future. I can't leave you much, and I've probably been the most disappointing mother of all time. But if this goes some way to making your life easier in the future, then I will have succeeded in at least helping my grandchildren._

_I'm so sorry for the things I've done to you. Much of it was to protect you._

_Isobel._

Damon and Elena stared at each other for a moment in complete shock at the revelations in the letter, although much of it went on to explain their current situation.

"Do you remember being able to do magic as a child?" Elena asked Damon.

"No." Damon shook his head as he thought about the letter. "Although my father used to call me unnatural and evil." he frowned. "An embarrassment to the family."

"I'm guessing you suppressed your magic when you were very young because you were scared of your father." Elena surmised.

"So it appears." Damon sighed. "That goes a long way to explain why he hated me so much." he pressed his lips together and took a deep breath, trying to dial back his anger.

Elena placed a reassuring hand on his. "But you don't have to worry about him now. And it looks like the cure was the magical trigger for my powers to emerge and yours to wake up." she smiled as Damon re-read the letter, his face turning to stone. "What's wrong?" Elena asked.

"According to Isobel, the worst case doomsday scenario is you and I becoming human, triggering our magic and having kids together as our children could end up as super-witches." he frowned.

"They're powerful, but not that powerful." Elena shook her head.

"What was Bonnie like at their age?" Damon asked.

"She couldn't do magic." Elena admitted slowly as she realized the potential implications. "I think we're going to need Ric and Caroline to look into this." she said.

"Now?" Damon looked aghast. "Does that mean..." he started.

"We probably won't be exploring the possibilities of my old room tonight." she said as Damon's face fell. "Depending on what they say, we'll have to make do with yours." she winked.

"Stop trying to give me a heart attack. We don't know if the cure will work if I'm already dead." Damon joked, placing his hand on his heart. "And if it doesn't Rebekah might kill you all for killing me before she got the chance to take it." his voice turned serious.

"I know." Elena replied. "Which is why we need to call the school. We're on the run, powerful witches might draw attention to us and give our location away, putting us all in danger." she said. "Maybe Ben could start school early." she suggested. "If magic is being performed at the school, nobody will look there."

"Vincent is going to do a cloaking spell." Damon frowned. "Won't that be enough?" he asked.

"I don't know." Elena shook her head. "And we don't know him or Freya well enough to call them at this time of night."

"Fine, call in the school cavalry, lets see what they have to say." Damon sighed. "Looks like I'm going to have to increase the alcohol level from beer to bourbon." he said as Elena threw him a look of disdain before calling the Salvatore Boarding School.

  
  


  
  


 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).**

There was a knock at the door signaling the arrival of Caroline and Ric. Damon opened the door and invited them both in, not needing to direct them to the kitchen as they already knew the house layout.

"Oh my god, it looks exactly the same." Caroline announced excitedly as she walked into the kitchen and was handed a glass of wine by Elena.

"You did good buddy." Ric nodded at Damon with a wry smile on his face. "But, you need a new couch. I can't sleep on this." he sighed.

"Who invited you to stay?" Damon frowned.

"Technically that would be me." Elena held her hand up. "I told him he was always welcome to stay here if he wanted." she said innocently.

"Elena, has Damon showed you all of the house yet?" Caroline asked. "Have you seen your old room?"

"No, not, yet." Elena replied.

"I can't believe you haven't shown her." Caroline frowned at Damon before stomping over to Elena and taking her hand. "Come with me!" she insisted, leading her up the stairs.

"Hey, don't wake the kids up." Damon called after them in a hushed tone.

"Good luck with that one." Ric laughed as Damon looked at him with a disappointed face. "What's up?" he asked.

"I had a very romantic moment planned out, which was why I haven't shown her all of the upstairs yet." Damon said through gritted teeth. "I wanted to surprise her myself."

"You should've finished the tour before asking us to come by." Ric sighed, turning his head as they heard the girls coming downstairs. "Tour over so soon?" he asked Caroline.

"She wouldn't look. Told me she was waiting for Damon to show her." Caroline folded her arms in annoyance as Elena walked over to Damon who wrapped his arms around her before giving Caroline a smug look.

"I think there might be a reason for that." Ric told Caroline.

"You didn't tell him what we were going to do, did you?" Elena looked at Damon in shock.

"No, I just told him I had a romantic moment planned for us." Damon pouted.

"Okay, time out from the domestic. I'm sure you didn't invite us here for a housewarming party." Ric interrupted. "It was clearly urgent." he said.

"You tell them." Damon whispered to Elena who nodded and took a deep breath.

"Remember when you told us Vanessa contacted you about the package Isobel left me?" Elena asked as Ric and Caroline both nodded. Elena handed the letter and grimoire over to Ric and Caroline. "Well this is what the package contained."

"It makes for very interesting and frankly quite scary reading." Damon added as he refilled the now empty glasses of wine and bourbon.

They all sat around the island in the kitchen in silence for a few minutes while Ric and Caroline examined the letter and flipped through the grimoire, something neither Damon nor Elena had done up until that point.

"Wow." Ric commented as he looked through some of the contents of the grimoire. "I'm not a witch, but I know this kind of magic is of the highest level. We don't teach anything this advanced." he shook his head.

"We wouldn't be able to find a witch capable of teaching it." Caroline agreed. "This girl was easily as powerful as Freya Mikaelson, probably more." she said.

"I'm worried about the children. If what Isobel says is true, they could be far more powerful with Damon's blood running through their veins." Elena said, her voice beginning to panic.

"I say we get Freya or Vincent to look at this." Ric said to Caroline, holding up the grimoire before turning to Damon and Elena. "They wouldn't be be able to tell what effect this would have on your children, but they'd be able to find out how powerful this Sarah Drummond was. But right now I'm more interested in the two of you." he frowned.

"Why?" Damon asked. "The letter was pretty much self explanatory about how come we've got our magic." he said.

"When Katherine became human, the cure triggered her magic, which she didn't have before she became a vampire. Even after she no longer carried the cure." Caroline started. "In other words she became a witch."

"But she was still a doppelganger." Ric added. "I'm guessing if she'd had lived longer, then her magic would have become more powerful as she aged naturally."

"So it's happening to me, I'm alive and becoming more powerful every day?" Elena understood. "My powers are increasing like Katherine's should have.."

"Caroline and I did look into this." Ric nodded.

"It was partly what I was looking into during my trip to Europe." Caroline explained. "I also found out about a male witch who had suppressed powers but couldn't perform magic." she told them.

"When magic is suppressed as a child, it will never be able to manifest itself, unless the entity is reborn in the supernatural sense." Ric told them.

"For the witch to be reborn into the supernatural, a spell was created where magic from doppelganger blood was placed into the witch, we assume either from Katherine or this Matey guy." Caroline went on, holding up Isobel's letter. "This stripped the witch back to their natural state, allowing theit powers to be reborn." she said.

"So is that what has happened to Damon?" Elena asked.

"It's what happened to you both." Ric said. "You, Elena, had suppressed magic because of your doppelganger curse. But the cure replaced the cursed blood which meant although you were physically still a doppelganger, biologically, you were the human, or witch you should have been, if you hadn't been a what you are, or were." he explained.

"So I'm no longer a doppelganger?" Elena asked.

"We don't know." Caroline shook her head. "When you first took the cure, I would have said no, because that was when you were reborn into your original magic state but you had the foreign magic of the cure running through your veins. Now you no longer carry the cure, it is possible your magic could be used as doppelganger blood once more. Except, now you are a witch, I would expect it to have more potency." she added.

"And me?" Damon frowned.

"When you became human, your magic was reborn at it's natural state. And without fear of magic..." Ric started.

"I'm not suppressing it this time." Damon interrupted him.

"Correct." Ric nodded.

"But there's more." Caroline added. "When the witch took the doppelganger magic, it had an interesting side effect. The witch became far more powerful than they should ever have been. Doppelganger blood is potent because it increases the magical power over human blood." she explained. "Basically, you are both far more powerful than you would ever have been had you both been able to use you magic before you turned." she said.

"And does that affect the kids?" Elena frowned.

"That is a very good question." Caroline sighed. "We don't know if a little bit of the cure passed through into them. For all we know, they could also carry the cure for vampirism." she suggested as Damon and Elena looked at each other in horror.

"But that's not your only problem." Ric sighed. "If this gets out, every witch who wants to become more powerful will want to get their hands on it." he explained.

"Why?" Damon asked.

"Think about it. All you have to do to become more powerful is find a vampire to turn you. After you transition, take the cure and there you go, increased power without the aging issue." Ric explained.

"So now it's not just vampires who you need to worry about chasing you, witches will too." Caroline sighed. "And I think they'll be wanting Jess and Ben as well."

"Well they can't have them." Damon growled.

"And what are you going to do Damon? Huh?" Ric asked. "You have the power of a seven year old witch. Admittedly, if you applied yourself, it would be a very powerful seven year old witch, but you still wouldn't be able to fight off a fully grown one who has been practicing for years." he said. "Have you even mastered a simple locator spell yet?"

"I can light candles." Damon offered.

"That's not enough." Caroline intervened. "I bet the kids can do a lot more." she said.

"We've been teaching them the prep stuff you've been sending." Elena told them.

"And did you bother to learn it yourself?" Caroline asked. Damon and Elena looked at each other uncomfortably. "I thought not. Ugh! I mean seriously, how are you supposed to help your kids if you won't do it for yourself?" she asked.

"Okay, we'll try harder." Damon promised.

"It's not about trying harder Damon." Caroline sighed. "Jess and Ben are going to be extremely powerful witches. And unless they know how to use their magic, they're dangerous." she said.

"But that's where school comes in." Elena smiled. "Can't you help?" she asked.

Ric and Caroline looked at each other nervously before Ric opted to answer. "We can." he nodded. "But at a price." he said.

"Of course, however much money you need..." Damon started but Ric shook his head.

"It's not about money." Ric said sadly. "It's about people knowing who they are." he told them. "If word gets out that your children are at the school, then Salvatore's becomes unsafe."

"But I thought it was cloaked." Elena frowned.

"It is." Caroline replied. "But if anyone finds out your children are pupils, it puts everyone there at risk."

"So we don't tell anyone. Big deal." Damon said.

"We need more than that." Ric glanced over at Caroline. "Jess and Ben will need new identities. And you won't be able to have any contact with them during term time." he said.

"And you probably need to stay away from Mystic Falls for a time." Caroline added. "Until we at least have found out whether they carry the cure or not."

"I'd like either Vincent or Freya to assess their magical potential." Ric continued. "Also, nobody is allowed to know you have children as they will be tracked down and become a target and a risk to the school."

"Do all parents have this problem?" Damon's jaw began to twitch in anger.

"So far only one pupil has even had parents with the same amount of significance or enough magical power to put the school at risk before." Caroline admitted.

"Hope Mikaelson." Elena sighed as Ric and Caroline looked at her in surprise regarding Elena's knowledge of Hope being a student. "Don't worry, Freya told us." she assured them. "The Mikaelson's trust us." she added.

"You know, there is a remote possibility Jess and Ben don't carry the cure." Caroline suggested. "They could be normal witches, but there is also a chance they could instead have vampire blood permanently running through their system." she said.

"How can they be vampires, they're growing up?" Elena frowned.

"They'd need to transition." Damon said stoically. "Am I right?" he asked.

Ric shrugged. "Hope also has hereditary vampirism, but she isn't a vampire."

"Not yet." Damon shook his head. "But when she dies, it may happen." he said.

"Okay, so lets say we go along with this." Elena changed the subject. "What are we supposed to do?" she asked.

"Find out what your children are, and what you are." Ric told Elena.

"How?" Elena frowned.

"You are a doctor." Ric said. "Go to New Orleans under new identities and stay with the Mikaelson's. Keelin is prepared to research the supernatural on a scientific level." he said. "She wants to look at all supernatural creatures."

"It's already been done, and it wasn't particularly pleasant." Damon sneered.

"Oh yeah. I wonder if anything from Whitmore was kept." Elena frowned. "There has to be some records somewhere." she said.

"What do you mean?" Ric asked.

"Whitmore had a program which involved using vampires as lab rats." Damon explained. "I was one of them for five years."

"Maybe we could do a little research into what they have left." Ric agreed. "But Elena, my suggestion is to for now, get someone else to run the practice, go stay in New Orleans, and do some scientific research on the supernatural. As long as they're not hurt in the process, I'm sure you will find lots of willing volunteers." he suggested. "It would certainly help us, and might even create a new study subject at the school." he shrugged. "Maybe even look into scientifically trying to find a way for Damon to not be affected by a vampire taking his cure."

Damon looked at Elena. "It's an option." he shrugged.

"I don't like the idea of being separated from the kids." Elena said looking downcast.

"I don't think you really have a choice." Caroline told them softly. "Staying together as a family will just draw attention to yourselves and put all of your lives in danger. You could always communicate with the kids via Freya." she suggested.

"They'll hate us." Elena swallowed as tears began to well up in her eyes.

Damon put his arms around her. "They'll understand." he assured her. "Maybe it won't take too long and we can see them soon. Especially if we can get our hands on the Augustine research information." he said. "Right?" he asked turning to Ric and Caroline.

"The sooner people don't want to get their hands on you, the better." Ric nodded.

"Will you need samples from the kids for testing?" Caroline asked.

"They're not lab rats." Elena growled.

"We know that." Ric held his hands up defensively. "We're trying to save yours and your children's lives. Believe me, if there were an easier way to do this we would. But magic isn't going to be enough." he said.

"I'm going to be going back to Europe next month, we can get the kids settled down at the school. While I'm there I can do some research into Isobel's claims." Caroline suggested as she took her phone out and began frantically texting.

"What's are you doing?" Damon asked.

"I'm contacting Freya and Vincent." Caroline told them. "The lab will need to be established asap, and we need either one of them to come over here and find out the potency of yours and your children's magic." she said. "Usually we have one of the witches from the school do it if it's not possible for a parent to grade it, but if we're keeping things quiet about who you all are, and as much as I trust the teachers, the less people who know what is going on, the better."

"You don't think someone might recognize them?" Elena asked. "They both have Damon's very distinctive eyes and coloring." she said.

"There are spells which can alter the appearance of the eye pigment and hair coloring without being invasive. It's a fairly easy spell for a really powerful witch." Caroline told them. "They can't usually perform it on themselves, but they can make minor alterations for others. A biological cloaking spell." she added.

"So our kids won't look like our kids?" Elena cried in horror.

"Yes they will, they just won't have Damon's very distinctive blue eyes and raven hair." Caroline shrugged. "It's only temporary, while they are in Mystic Falls and the surrounding area." she said as her phone beeped. Caroline read the text and looked up. "Vincent is on his way from New Orleans. He'd set off a couple of hours ago, as soon as he found out you were almost in Mystic Falls. He should be here sometime tomorrow afternoon." she said.

"How did he know we were here?" Damon frowned.

"They did a locator spell." Caroline told them. "Jeremy provided some blood as he's there right now. They wanted to make sure they had the house cloaked in time. Vincent had to channel the full moon, which has luckily already reached it's apex. He found out you were near Richmond and figured you'd be in Mystic Falls not long afterwards. His magic will only last for just over a week until the quarter moon. All decisions need to be made by then because if you're going to New Orleans, so that the research lab can be set up." she said.

"This is too much to take in for one night." Elena downed the glass of wine. "I need a bourbon upgrade." she said to Damon who poured her a small amount.

"Look, do you want us to leave you guys to it, process what we've said and relax from your trip?" Caroline asked.

"I think that would be a good idea." Ric nodded putting his empty glass down. "We'll talk it over tomorrow when you've both slept. I'm guessing you've been on the go for at least forty eight hours now. You must be beat." he said as Damon and Elena simply nodded.

"We'll see our own way out." Caroline added before walking over to Damon and Elena and rubbing Elena's back. "Don't worry, we'll help you get through this." she assured them.

"Thank you Care." Elena smiled sadly. "And you too Ric." she said.

Once they'd all wished each other goodnight, Damon and Elena were finally alone once more. Elena rested her head in the crook of Damon's neck as she began to sob, while Damon did the best he could in holding back his own tears as he knew he had to be strong for all of them. Yet he had been the one who'd raised them while Elena was either at med school or working shifts at the hospital. The thought of being parted from them was bad enough, although he'd already been preparing for this moment when they had decided to send them to the Salvatore School. However, to find out they wouldn't be allowed direct contact, felt like it was going to break him in two. Damon closed his eyes to prevent his tears from falling when he felt Elena lift her head and her hand touch his face. He opened his eyes to meet hers.

"As hard as this is going to be for all of us, we have to do it." Elena swallowed.

"I know." Damon whispered, narrowing his eyes. "How are we going to tell them."

"Jess already knows something is wrong." Elena told him. "She's old enough to understand we might have to stay away for a while because being together puts us all in danger."

"She's a smart kid." Damon nodded with a wry grin on his face. "Takes after her father." he added with pride as Elena choked with a mixture of tears and laughter.

"Modest too." Elena raised an eyebrow as Damon simply smirked. "But Damon." Elena's tone became more serious. "If Ric and Caroline are right, we are putting the kids lives at risk. I can't do that." she shook her head. " _We_ can't do that."

"I'm the one putting their lives at risk." Damon corrected her. "I'm the one who should disappear." he insisted.

"If they're carrying the cure, you being around or not won't matter." Elena insisted. "What if witches find out this is a way to increase their powers and Jess and Ben's blood can do that?" she said. "How are we supposed to protect them?" she asked.

"Find out if their blood contains the cure and give it to both Mikaelson's." Damon suggested. "I'm sure Kol would want to become a witch again and have a family with what's her name, Divine?" he frowned.

"Davina." Elena corrected him. "And what about you?" she asked.

"Simple, I'll leave." Damon replied. "I'm not worth putting all of your lives at risk." he told her.

Elena shook her head furiously. "That is not an option Damon!" she said angrily. "The children need you. I need you! I'm sure they'd prefer for us to disappear for a couple of years and have both of us come back to them than have you disappear for the rest of their lives." she said as she cupped his face. "Look, Caroline and Ric are right, just because some of the issues of vampirism can't be addressed by magic, doesn't mean they can't be addressed with science. When Tessa and Esther created the immortality spells, science wasn't as advanced as it is now. The main reason vampire want to be human is because they can't have a family. What if we can do something about that?" she asked. "What if our weapon is science, not magic."

"I guess." Damon sighed as he rested his forehead against Elena's. "I love it when you make your impassioned speeches. And you're right, advances in science might be able to address some vampirism issues. But how can we test the cure?" he asked.

"If the kids have the cure in their system, removing it won't age them. They may have repeat doses. Maybe it can be replicated." Elena suggested. "Then nobody is going to be bothered with you if it can be we can make more doses." she said, beginning to get excited at the prospect of resolving their problems using her education instead of a supernatural remedy. Elena looked into Damon's eyes and stroked his cheek reassuringly. "Promise me you won't do anything stupid, or leave." she warned.

"Okay, I promise." Damon sighed rolling his eyes.

His response raised a smile from Elena. "Look, we won't have long here and I think we should make the most of it." she suggested. "Take our minds off things. Hopefully gain a little clarity." she winked.

Damon raised an eyebrow. "And how do you suggest we do that?" he asked.

"Give me a tour of the rest of the house?" Elena suggested.

"Fine." Damon smiled as he took her hand and led them to the master bedroom. Before he let her inside, he turned to face her. "You know I said I extended the house a little." he started.

"Yes." Elena frowned.

"It had a lot to do with this room." he shrugged as he opened the door to their bedroom.

Damon hadn't decorated it like her parents room, for which Elena was glad. Instead it vaguely resembled Damon's old bedroom in the boarding house, yet at the same time was completely different. This time however, everything seemed brighter. The paneling only came half way up the wall and was white instead of the dark wood in the old house. Above the paneling, the walls were painted a pale silvery blue color, making it feel bright and airy. The bathroom, however was a scaled down identical model of his old one.

The bedroom was set above the living room, which meant he was able to install a scaled down version of the fireplace in his old bedroom. French doors opened to a small balcony which housed a small bistro style table and two chairs. There was a closet, which was larger than his old one as it was now for two people. The closet was already full of their clothes which had been put away for if this time should ever come.

"It's beautiful." Elena smiled. "Who chose the colors, you or Caroline?" she asked.

"I did." Damon nodded. "I knew you liked the blue color. But if you don't like it, you could always change it." he offered.

"It's perfect. I wouldn't change a thing." Elena smiled. "You already know my taste, so you knew exactly how I'd decorate it." she said, raising an eyebrow.

"Well you practically did decorate the other room." Damon smiled. "You wanna see it?" he asked as Elena grinning like a Cheshire cat provided him with her answer.

Damon led her to where her old room would have been, opened the door and turned the light on. All except the picture of the horse, which was an upgraded oil painting of a horse by Klaus, everything was exactly the same.

"Everything was custom made to replicate your old room." he told her as Elena looked at him in shock. "This room means a lot to me too." he whispered.

Elena turned around and kissed him. "Thank you." she smiled as her eyes wandered around the room again, as tears began to cloud her vision.

"You want to sleep here tonight instead?" Damon asked as Elena simply nodded. "Can I stay the night?" he asked.

"You never asked for permission before." Elena laughed. "But yes Damon, you can share my bed with me tonight. But no funny business." she said pointing her finger at him. "We said we'd keep this room pure."

"It's been a long day." Damon nodded in agreement. "We both could use a shower and get some sleep. There's some clothes and nightwear in your closet and dresser." he told her. "I'll be back in a few minutes." he said, kissing her on the forehead, before leaving to shower and change for bed.

After getting showered and changed, Elena walked back into the bedroom to find Damon laying on back, his arms folded behind his head, wearing a t-shirt and slacks, both black, resembling the look he used to sport when he once upon a time frequented her bedroom while she was a teenager. Only this time, she didn't have to stop herself from noticing exactly how hot her husband looked lying there, on top of the comforter, like a Greek god.

"Cute pj's." Damon smirked as Elena looked down at her tank top and shorts, again reminiscent of what she used to wear for bed.

"If my memory and your compulsion serves me right, you were sat on the window seat when you said that." Elena said as she tried to pull the comforter from underneath Damon, who looked up at the ceiling and ignored her efforts.

"You know, I think you're right." Damon said thoughtfully as Elena cried out in exasperation before giving up and crawling to get into what small area of bed she could. "I was sat on the window seat." he said as he turned to face her.

Elena turned the light out and turned to face Damon. "When all is said and done, over the next few months or years, we're going to need each other more than ever if we are to help the kids." she said. "We need to stay strong and keep focused."

"As long as we've got each other, we can face anything." Damon assured Elena as she smiled in the dark and cupped his cheek.

"We always have." Elena whispered as she leaned over and kissed him.

"I thought we were keeping this room pure and a reminder of what it was before we were together." Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Screw that." Elena smirked as she pulled Damon in and they began to kiss once more.

Damon moved the comforter from between them and wrapped his arm around Elena's tiny waist, holding her tight into his body. Elena placed her arms around Damon's neck and pulled her into him, moving her hips against his, making it clear to him what she wanted. Her desire to have him inside her never went away. Elena always felt safer and more loved than at any other time when she was in Damon's arms and they were making love. No matter how bad a problem, or how low she was, their union was symbolic of them facing the world together as a team. And after the bad news they'd just received, she needed to feel the closeness of the one constant in her life, Damon.

Elena could feel Damon responding as his erection grew with the grinding of their hips. They rolled over so Damon was on top as his hand made its way up the back Elena's tank top, and around the front as he cupped her breast, his thumb gently brushing against her nipple, causing it to pebble. Elena's hand slid down Damon's back and into the back of his slacks, her fingers digging into the cheek of his behind, pulling his hips ever closer hers. Damon ran his hand down the side of Elena's body, all the way to the back of her knee, which he pulled up, so his erection could rub directly against Elena's ever dampening core. Elena moaned with pleasure as she began to burn with desire inside, lit by her eternal flame.

Suddenly the flames of passion were snuffed out as there was a tap at the bedroom door. Damon and Elena firstly looked up and towards the door in horror, fear of getting caught, however when it stayed closed, Elena sighed with disappointment, while Damon groaned and momentarily rested his forehead against Elena's, before rolling off her and covering them both with the comforter.

"Mommy, daddy." Ben's frightened voice came from the other side of the door.

Elena pulled her tank top down to look decent for her son. "Come in sweetheart." she called out as she heard Damon groan once more, while trying unsuccessfully to adjust himself to be a little more comfortable as his erection began to subside.

Elena sat up as the door opened and Ben appeared with his old blue sleepy bear in his hand.

"Can I sleep with you tonight?" Ben asked. "I'm scared." he pouted as Elena switched the light on.

"Why are you scared?" Elena asked as Ben came and sat next to her on the bed.

"I was dreaming about a scary vampire with big teeth and blood in her mouth." he told her.

Damon and Elena looked at each other and frowned with concern. If Ben walking into their bedroom during foreplay wasn't a mood killer, then him dreaming about vampires certainly was.

"I'll tell you what." Damon said. "Why don't we sleep in the other bedroom. That one is like my old room in my old house, and the bed is really really big and will easily fit us all in it." he said.

"Will I fit in it too?" Jess asked as they all turned to see her standing on the other side of the door.

"Of course you will honey." Damon smiled. "Did you have a nightmare too?" he asked as Jess nodded.

"Sort of. I was dreaming about a vampire too, he had blood all around his mouth." she said. "But he kinda looked like you dad." Jess frowned.

Elena took a deep breath. "Well you don't need to worry, daddy isn't a vampire until he pretends to be one on Halloween." she joked.

"My vampire wasn't daddy." Ben interrupted. "It was you mommy." he said.

"Well I'm not a vampire either." Elena smiled as she turned to Damon with a worried look.

"It was like the dream I had when I found out what I got for my birthday." Jess told her. "It had that green light." she said.

"Mine did too." Ben offered.

This really was something which scared Elena more than Damon. Usually when the children had one of their dreams with the green light, they had been seeing visions of the future. But this was confusing as the children were suggesting Damon and Elena were going to be vampires, which was physically impossible. Elena wondered if they might also be able to see into a person's past. But that was a question for Vincent, and for now it was time to put the children's minds at ease.

"Well that's a bust for the surprise Halloween party." Damon sighed as he looked at Elena with concern. "That bed is big enough for a football team, I say we all share tonight. Huh?" he asked.

"Is there a TV in your room daddy?" Ben asked excitedly.

"Yes." Damon replied cautiously. "Why?"

"Can we have a movie?" Ben asked.

"And popcorn?" Jess added.

"Ask your mother." Damon defaulted the decision to Elena, offering her a smug grin.

Elena knew what Damon was doing. He was agreeing with the children but allowing Elena to make the ultimate decision. Although Damon had never told her, Elena suspected a movie and popcorn in bed with the kids was not uncommon occurrence when she was working nights at the hospital. On a number of occasions she'd come home and found the kids asleep in bed with Damon, and more than once she'd found little pieces of popcorn in the bed after they'd gotten up.

Damon was a complete pushover with the children and would let them do anything within reason. On the other hand, Elena had turned out to be the stricter parent of the two. And sometimes it felt like she had three children as Damon usually sided with the kids against her. Normally this would be something Elena would be strongly opposed to. Popcorn was bad for the kids teeth and she didn't want them eating at stupid times at night when they should the tucked up in bed asleep.

This time however was different. Elena knew she and Damon would still have each other, but their time with the children was about to become limited, and they had to make the best of every moment they had together. As this was something she'd never shared with Damon and the kids, she decided it could possibly be the last opportunity they would get to experience it as a family. The worry about Jess and Ben's visions would have to be put to one side for later. Now was time to have fun.

"So which movie is it to be?" Elena asked with a smile.

  
  


  
  


 


	4. Chapter 4

** Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon). **

The next morning was spent making pancakes and exploring the new house and garden before the arrival of Ric and Vincent. Caroline would be over later as she was staying behind at the school, preparing for the arrival of Jess and Ben. The now Sheriff Matt Donovan, had stopped by on his way to work to say hi and meet the kids for the first time. Damon and Matt still had a frosty relationship, and Elena doubted that would ever change, however they held a healthy respect for one another and behaved cordially, even pretending to be friendly in front of the children.

Just after lunch Vincent arrived with his bag of tricks as Damon liked to put it. Vincent was introduced to the children, and promptly did a spell to create a chocolate fountain in the kitchen aiming to befriend them, which was hugely successful with them and Damon, although not so much with Elena who didn't like the kids to eat too much chocolate. By the time they'd done, Vincent had explained he wanted to see them all individually. This type of test had been designed by Freya to find out if a child wasn't showing any inclination to be a witch even though they were born of magical blood. She'd made some for the Salvatore school, although they were rarely needed because the children of witches usually had powers similar to their parents.

The circumstances behind the Salvatore family's need to use the cup was different as Vincent already knew they were able to practice magic. Instead he needed to assess what powers were behind their magic, what practices they could make use of and what type of magical creature or witch they had the power to become. Did they only have strengthened Traveler magic, or was it something else entirely? To do this, they decided to use Elena's old room.

This was how Damon found himself sat on Elena's bed. "Okay, so this is what I want you to do." Vincent told Damon. "I need for you to hold this cup here." he placed a large wooden cup in Damon's hands, before sitting on the window seat. "Close your eyes and think about the cup real hard, and what you want it to be filled with. When I tell you to, you can open your eyes." he explained.

"Is this some kind of supernatural test?" Damon raised. "Cause I always cheated as a kid." he grinned mischievously.

"It's not that kind of test." Vincent explained. "While you've got it in your hands it'll be telling me what fuels your power." he said.

"Pft. That's easy. Magic." Damon smirked.

Vincent rolled his eyes in exasperation. "There are a number of types of magic. Spiritual, ancestral..." he started.

"Travelers?" Damon interrupted, rolling his eyes. "Because according to the supernatural family tree, Elena and I descend from the Travelers." he told Vincent.

"True." Vincent agreed. "But you've also got magic in your system which predates the travelers curse. Inside of you, maybe Elena and possibly your children, remains what is left of the original Travelers magic. A magic so powerful, it took many covens to restrict their powers, forcing them to move from place to place." he explained. "Qetsiyah was the most powerful witch in recorded history, but how much was wiped out before then? Nobody really knows where the heart of the Travelers powers truly lay. Most of the records of the types practices of the original Travelers were erased. Yes we know they practiced traditional magic, but there must have been more. They were way too powerful for it to be just that. Maybe there was another branch of magic which they used and is now extinct, well was extinct. My theory is the reason your magic is coming back more potent is because you are developing the powers of the original Travelers magic, not what they became after the curse."

"So does that make us all as powerful as Silas?" Damon frowned.

Vincent shook his head and shrugged. "I have no idea until you let me carry out the tests." he said.

"Fine!" Damon shook his head before closing his eyes.

"Okay, before we start the test, I need you to tell me what you are imagining inside the cup." Vincent told him.

"Bourbon!" Damon replied immediately.

"Good choice." Vincent smiled. "Okay, time to get down to business, he said getting his pen and paper ready to write down what he saw.

Vincent lit the candle beneath the cup and focused hard on what magic Damon was providing. The cup turned transparent, allowing Vincent to see whatever images would manifest itself inside the cup to represent the branch of magic which was the strongest inside Damon. Once filled with the bourbon Damon was imagining, only then would the test be over.

At first, the images Vincent saw were what he expected. Earth, to represent traditional magic, a face appeared who looked like Stefan, Damon's brother, although Vincent knew the face could also belong to Silas, which was more likely. This probably represented ancestral magic. A triangle, appeared, then blood, after that the cup turned dark before more and more images appeared inside the cup. All the while Vincent was frantically scribbling down what he saw, amazed by the sheer amount of images representing magic which fueled Damon and the practices he was capable of. Normally he got no more than five, seven was the most he'd ever seen, and that was Freya, Damon was already into double figures, with some images that made no sense.

Finally the cup filled with amber liquid and turned black once more. Vincent sat back, startled by what he'd seen, this was the type of power he would've expected from Qetsiyah. Although Damon wasn't showing much potential as he was barely practicing, should he ever get out of control, he would become very dangerous. Vincent just hoped Damon was the strongest of the four witches, but somehow he doubted it.

"You can open your eyes now." Vincent told Damon. "And if you want, you can drink the bourbon. It's only a little magic, and you did make it." he smiled.

"So how did I do?" Damon asked. "Do I need to cheat, or did I pass?" he winked as he drank the bourbon and looked at the cup impressed with the taste. "Although this is a decent bourbon. I might have to get practicing after all."

Vincent smiled at Damon's new enthusiasm for magic. "I've written it all down, once I go through it, I'll tell you what I know. But I can safely say there's a lot of magic in there. A lot more than I expected. However, you and me are done for now." he said, putting the cup to one side with the notes he'd made before getting another cup out of his bag. "Do you want to send Elena in for me?" he asked.

Once they'd all finished their tests, Damon and Elena sat waiting in the kitchen, watching the children playing in the garden through the window. Vincent and Ric had been talking among themselves for over forty minutes, and the Salvatore's were both getting edgy. Finally the three of them emerged from the the dining room and ushered them in.

"Do you want us to get the kids?" Elena asked as Ric shook his head solemnly.

"I've put up a barrier spell." Vincent told them. "Your children are safe outside. Nobody can find them, and they're not going anywhere."

They all returned to the dining room where Vincent had the four cups out and the notes of each individual written down. Damon and Elena sat at the opposite end of the table, holding hands, because from the looks on the faces of the others, there was bad news coming.

Damon looked at all Ric and Vincent carefully, before deciding to break the ice. "Okay, so what can be so bad, you look like just someone died." he frowned.

Vincent and Ric glanced at each other before the witch spoke. "Okay, first off all, to Elena." Vincent started. "It seems that the doppelganger in you is still affecting your magic." he said. "You have less branches of magic to draw from than Damon, except you have the doppelganger blood, which in itself is very powerful. Doppelganger blood is so powerful it more than makes up for what types of magic you can't draw from. But although you have less types of magic than Damon, the magic you can produce have is stronger. In theory you should be able to create more powerful spells. The images I saw were more varied in Damon but clearer in Elena." he said before turning to Damon. "You while not having quite as much strength, have a lot more magic you can tap into. Some you can use naturally like all witches can, but not every witch can practice every kind of magic. But until I saw you, I'd never seen a witch with the potential to use so many branches of magic." he shook his head.

"Can you stop speaking witch. Give me an example." Damon frowned.

"Okay, for example if you were both to create the most powerful storm you could using traditional magic, Damon you'd manage a category one hurricane while Elena might manage a category two, because of her doppelganger blood." Vincent explained. "But if you were to both access the most powerful types of magic you could, which wouldn't necessarily be traditional magic, you'd both probably create a category four. Damon would be able to tap into a more powerful type of magic, while Elena would use something weaker but boosted by doppelganger blood." he said.

"Okay, that makes sense." Damon nodded.

"And the children?" Elena asked.

"They're even more powerful." Vincent said. "They're seers too aren't they?" he asked as both Damon and Elena looked at each other sheepishly before nodding.

"You never told me anything about that." Ric frowned. "They're going to be starting at the school soon, don't you think you should have at least told me?"

"It's only started happening in the past few months, and we weren't really sure if they were or not. It was just little things which made us suspect they might be." Elena explained. "Knowing what they were going to get for their birthday. Guessing the ending of movies they'd never seen." she said. "Things which could easily be explained, so we didn't think anything of it."

"Except for the green light." Damon interrupted. "Whenever they predicted things, they would see a green light." he told them.

"When do these visions happen?" Ric asked.

"They have them during their dreams." Elena said.

"But not everything with the green light it the future." Damon added. "Last night both had a similar dream, Jess about me and Ben about Elena. They said we were vampires." he told them. "And we all know that's impossible."

"Maybe they can see the past and the future." Vincent shrugged. "I've never heard of anyone being able to do that, but that's for the school to work out." he said.

"We'll give them dream journals." Ric explained. "See if we can work out what kind of control they have over their visions." he said.

"That's a good idea." Elena smiled and nodded turning to Damon who raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Journals? Really?" Anything else?" Damon asked.

"The kids are more powerful than the two of you, but if Isobel's research is anything to go by, that's not a surprise." Ric said.

Elena shook her head. "So what happens now?" she asked.

"Bonnie is already on her way to Athens." Ric told them. "She flew out last night after you got here. She's going to do some research in Greece, which is the historical home of the Travelers before they were cursed by the other witches." he said. "We've got a couple of possible leads regarding some ancient relics. There has to be something somewhere about them."

"Why send Bonbon? I thought Caroline was the one researching in Europe." Damon asked.

"Caroline is on a recruitment drive among other things." Ric nodded. "But if she spends too much time trying to research your magic, she won't have time for her main purpose of being there, so we've assigned Bonnie to solely focus on looking into your history."

"Why is it so important?" Damon frowned.

"Because, we need to know if it is your original magic being unlocked or if the cure is making you more potent." Ric told them. "If it's the first part, the cure won't be hunted by existing witches wanting more power. It might even be because you're both descended from Travelers, meaning it will only trigger the magic inside a descendant of a Traveler. The less people hunting you the better." he said.

"But nobody else will know that." Damon shrugged. "They'll still want the cure thinking it might work."

"Which is why we need to find a way to get it out of you without aging you." Ric explained.

"If this magic can increase abilities and power, we can't allow it to fall into the wrong hands." Vincent told them. "Any witch practicing dark magic would love to get their hands on something like this. If it doesn't work, it is only useful to vampires."

"Like that's not bad enough?" Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Exactly." Ric nodded. "The less people this is any good to, the better. If it's just vampires, then Rebekah and Marcel are going to sort out the guards for you both until we can figure out how to stop Damon aging. These all will be from Klaus's line, loyal to Marcel so they won't care about Rebekah taking the cure." he said.

"So that's your big plan. Get the cure out of me so I don't get older, which means no witches or vampires will be chasing me?" Damon asked.

"Pretty much." Ric replied. "We just need to know what we're dealing with."

"And the kids?" Elena asked.

Vincent hesitated for a moment. "Their magic is where we'd expect it to be. Maybe a little more powerful, but we can't tell if it is related to the cure or not." he said.

"We need more biological information on the both of you, a selection of vampires and witches, and your kids." Ric told them. "For now, we know where we're at and how to teach them at the school. Once they're settled in, we need to take blood and DNA samples from them, for you to test." he said.

"But I've never..." Elena started.

"Don't worry." Vincent smiled. "Freya and Keelin have been working on setting up a supernatural lab for a while.

"When do we need to do this?" Damon asked, although he suspected he knew the answer already.

"Do you know where Frank is?" Ric asked as both Damon and Elena shook their heads. "Well you need to think about leaving today.

"Uh uh!" Damon shook his head.

"No way!" Elena exclaimed. we haven't got time to say goodbye to the kids or explain to them properly whats going on." she said in a panicked voice.

"The house is cloaked, that should buy us a few days." Damon protested but Vincent shook his head.

"The only reason you can't do powerful spells is because you don't know how to." Vincent told them. "Your magic is unpredictable, and far more powerful than mine. A bee sting could send a power surge and completely destroy the cloaking spell."

"Well we don't get stung by a bee." Damon cried aghast.

"Just getting angry could destroy the spell." Vincent warned them.

"Damon, Elena, just calm down." Ric held up his hands to try and ease the situation.

"Look, I can cloak the house because I know how to. I could beat you in a straight fight because I know how to use magic." Vincent told them. "But if you knew even a little of what you're capable of, you'd be able to destroy me in the blink of an eye." he said.

"Don't give me ideas." Damon growled.

"Damon, he doing this for all of your sake's." Ric cried. "We all are. None of us want to see you hurt."

Elena touched Damon on the arm. "Damon." she said softly as he turned to look at her. "What if they're right?" she asked. "Getting angry is just going to lead Frank right here to Mystic Falls. Anything could happen to trigger an outburst. If either of the kids stubbed their toes they might have a rush of magic and destroy the spell. Do you want to risk it?" she asked.

"No." Damon lowered his eyes.

"We'll leave you guys alone for a few minutes. Let you talk it over. Call us when you're ready, we'll be in the kitchen." Ric said as he and Vincent left the room.

Once they'd gone Damon took Elena in his arms and they simply held each other. There were no need for words, they just needed time out to take in the magnitude of letting their children go for the time being.

"How much are we going to tell them?" Elena asked. "Do you think they need to know we used to be vampires?"

"I think it's probably best not to tell them that part. They won't be able to tell anyone who we are remember? Although they're going to need to know more about the supernatural world." Damon replied. "Harry Potter isn't going to cut it this time. Thank god they're too young for Twilight." he sighed.

"Maybe we could ask Caroline to go through the vampire stuff with them. The love and trust her, she is their aunt." Elena suggested.

"Good idea." Damon agreed. "Do you want to text Blondie or should I?" he asked.

"I'll do it." Elena said sadly as she reached into the back pocket to take out her phone.

"You're taking this awfully well Elena." Damon frowned.

"Trust me Damon, I'm not." Elena shook her head. "But the kids can't see me upset. It needs to be an adventure for them." she swallowed. "I'll cry later."

"They'll understand." Damon whispered. "We'll explain to them they're going to stay at Aunt Caroline's version of Hogwarts because they are very special. But we've got to go to the grown up version of Hogwarts which isn't in Mystic Falls."

"They're going to want to know why they have to change their names." Elena said. "We need to be a little honest."

"I've got an idea." Damon grinned. "Leave it to me."

Five minutes later they were all gathered around the dining room table. Jess was sat attentive, but Ben was itching to get back outside to play with his water gun, preferably to shoot his sister, although she'd mastered a barrier spell, which he was determined to thwart. Just as they were about to start, there was a knock at the door and Caroline waltzed right in. Jess and Ben screamed with joy before running up to her and giving her a hug. After a few moments, Caroline stood up and held their hands and walked them back into the dining room to join Ric, Vincent and their parents. Once they were all sat down Damon cleared his throat, indicating he wanted to speak. Everyone turned to look to hear what he had to say.

"Okay, so here it is." Damon addressed Jess and Ben. "You remember earlier when you had to imagine something in the cup for Vincent?" he asked as they both nodded.

"Do you know why he asked you to do it?" Elena asked.

"He wanted to see how strong our magic was." Jess replied.

"And it was very very strong." Vincent smiled. "You both could become very very powerful witches." he said.

"But you need to know how to practice magic properly." Ric said.

"Daddy taught me how to light a candle." Ben announced proudly.

"That's really good Ben." Caroline smiled at him. "But you also have to learn to control your magic, because as you get older, you will be able to do a lot more than light a candle." she explained. "Even if you don't intend to."

"Does that mean we're going to real school?" Jess asked.

Damon and Elena looked at each other before facing their children.

"Yes it does." Damon told them. "You're going to stay at Aunt Caroline's school to learn magic. You'll be there with lots of other kids who are also learning magic and what to do with their own powers." he said.

"They're not all witches." Elena told them. "Are they Caroline?" she turned to her sister-in-law.

"What else is there?" Ben asked.

"Well, we've got witches, vampires and werewolves." Caroline smiled.

"Huh. There's no such things as vampires and werewolves!" Ben announced folding his arms.

"Oh but there is." Ric said. "You believe in witches don't you?" he asked.

"Only because we can do magic." Jess frowned. "But daddy said there were no such things as vampires and werewolves when we have our bad dreams." she said.

"What bad dreams?" Elena frowned.

"Um... About that..." Damon started as Elena glared at him. "I didn't want to scare them." he smiled sheepishly.

"Why would that scare them? Not all vampires are scary!" Caroline frowned.

"Not scary?" Damon narrowed his eyes. "Have you met you?" he asked.

"Is Aunt Caroline a vampire?" Jess asked.

"Yes sweetie I am." Caroline smiled before throwing an angry glance over at Damon.

"Woah, cool!" Ben grinned. "Can we see your teeth?" he pleaded.

"Do you eat people?" Jess asked, her eyes wide with surprise.

"I have a special diet." Caroline explained. "But no I don't eat people. And no Ben I will not show you my teeth." she said.

"Well I don't believe you!" Ben scowled. "Not until you show me your teeth."

"Look, it's up to your mom and dad." Caroline told them before turning to their parents. "Damon, Elena. Can I show them?" she asked.

Elena looked over at Damon who sighed and nodded. "If the children promise not to scream or be scared then yes." she said. "Their going to see this sooner or later, so it's better coming from someone the love and trust not to hurt them."

Caroline smiled before turning to the kids. "Don't scream, I won't hurt you, I'm still me with bigger teeth." she added as the veins around her eyes protruded from her skin. The whites of her eyes turned red and her fangs grew. She held the face momentarily before it disappeared and she returned to normal.

Jess frowned. "That's exactly like what daddy looked like in my dream." she told them.

"Mommy looked the same in mine too." Ben piped up.

"That's because when we decided to dress up as vampires for Halloween, we were going to look like the real thing." Damon told them, however Jess and Ben looked skeptical at this explanation. "Look, your mom and I can't become vampires." he assured them.

"Why not?" Ben asked.

"Because we have special blood which means we can't turn into one." Elena explained.

"Can we turn into vampires when we grow up?" Jess asked.

"We don't know." Ric interrupted. "Your mom and dad are special witches and we don't know if they've passed that onto you. Which is why they have to go away." he explained.

"Go away?" Ben frowned.

"Go where?" Jess asked.

"To a special school for grownups who are witches and don't know how to use their powers." Damon smiled.

"Bullshit!" Jess swore as Damon and Elena looked at each other with shock at their daughters language.

"What did you just say to your father?" Elena asked angrily. This was not how they wanted their last conversation to go with their children.

"I said bullshit!" Jess smirked. "We were dragged out of our beds in the middle of the night. Driven across the country taking probably twice as long as normal and changing cars, what was it three times?" she said. "Then we end up here being told we're going to some magical school and you are disappearing to go to learn magic at another school. Do you really think Ben and I are that stupid? You're on the run aren't you?" she asked as Damon and Elena looked at each other uncomfortably.

"Yes and no." Caroline replied before either Damon or Elena could. "They're on the run because of their magic." she explained. "You see, the way they became witches was different to how it usually happens, they didn't start becoming witches as children or teenagers. They were all grown up when it happened. And people would want to know why." she said.

"Wasn't that what the cup test was for?" Jess asked. "And what does that have to do with us?"

"Your natural abilities have shown up as normal. But we didn't know how much power any of you had." Vincent explained. "Now we do and you are all extremely powerful witches. Now your mom and dad have absolutely no idea how to control their magic. If they got angry, they could accidentally do something real bad. You don't want that to happen do you?" he asked as both Jess and Ben shook their heads.

"The people who are looking for them know they could be dangerous and want to hurt your mom and dad, and if they find out about the both of you, they might want to hurt you as well, if they think you will get too powerful as you get older." Ric interrupted. "But to hurt you they'd have to do it now while they can. Which is why we need you at the school and learning magic as soon as we can and why we need your mom and dad to be learning how to control their magic too."

"Why can't they go to your school with us?" Ben asked.

"They're too old for our school." Caroline replied.

"And they need someone more powerful than any of your teachers to help them because it's harder to teach a grown up." Vincent explained. "And nobody there can know they are witches or that have children who are witches."

"But you said someone already knew." Ben frowned.

"They're in New York. They probably won't know we're here yet, and they don't know about you." Elena explained.

"But they'll probably work it out soon." Damon lowered his eyes.

"And how long is this expected to take?" Jess asked. "For you to learn magic?"

"We don't know." Elena admitted. "Hopefully not too long."

"People can't know you are our children until the magic is explained and under control." Damon said sadly. "Otherwise we are all in a lot of danger, from bad witches and bad vampires."

"So we're going to have to pretend you are somebody else." Ric told them. "Orphan witches. We'll change your last names. We'll make your hair and eye color different so nobody will recognize you looking like your mom or dad." he said.

"Can I have curly red hair and green eyes?" Jess asked. "Like dark red and ringlet curls?"

"Um..." Ric looked worriedly at Damon and Elena for help as to the appearance of their children.

"Remember, you can't change it once it's done." Elena warned. "It'll stay like that until we return." she said as she looked at Vincent. "Were you provided with a strong enough spell to change her that much?" she asked.

Vincent nodded. "Whatever they want." he smiled.

"Cool." Ben grinned. "Can you make me big and green like the Incredible Hulk?" he asked as everyone burst into laughter, finally easing the tension in the room.

"I think the spell has some limits." Damon frowned. "Right Vincent?"

Vincent nodded. "We can only change your hair and eye color." he said. "Your skin will adjust to the color you pick for your hair and only real human pigments can be used, not green, and you need to still look a little like you are brother and sister." he added.

"Boring!" Ben pouted. "Do whatever you want, I don't care." he said. "Just not red curly hair. That's for girls!"

"Let them both have the same color eyes, and Ben can have blond hair." Elena sighed. "Are you okay with that?" she asked turning to Damon who nodded sadly.

"Can you wait until we leave before you do the spell to change them?" Damon asked.

"Let's take them to the school, where they can get settled in, you say your goodbye's and then Vincent do the spell." Ric suggested.

"I can do that." Vincent shrugged.

"That's settled then." Caroline said brightly. "I've got your rooms ready at the school for you. We just need you to pack your things and we can go."

"We didn't have time to unpack last night." Damon told her. "There's nothing to pack."

"Then I guess it's time to show you to your new school." Ric smiled.

  
  


  
  


 


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon).**

All that had needed to be packed were the toys the children slept with and some toiletries. Once they'd finished, the children were ushered into their parents car for the short trip to the Salvatore School for the Young and Gifted. Caroline and Ric followed in one car while Vincent followed in his own, curious to find out what the famous school was like.

The pulled up at the front of the house, a wave of nostalgia hitting Damon and Elena as they saw their old home once again, awash with both good and bad memories of years gone by. They took hold of their children's hands as they walked through the doors into the familiar hallway, which had changed a little, although Damon noticed the lighting looked much more contemporary.

"You okay?" Ric asked, looking at Damon.

"Yeah, I guess. It's just a little strange being back here after all of this time." he frowned as he squeezed Elena's hand for reassurance. "Well, kids..." Damon took a deep breath. "This used to mine and your mom's house. Welcome home." he announced.

"You used to live here?" Jess asked. "It's a little creepy." she frowned.

"It's scary." Ben complained in a small voice turned his head and clung to Elena.

"That's why, I arranged for you to have your mom and dad's old room." Caroline smiled at them. "We've split it into two, with what I hope will be a Damon Salvatore approved bathroom. Not many kids get their own room, they usually sleep in a dorm." she said.

"Can mommy and daddy take us?" Jess asked skeptically.

"Sure." Damon replied, not giving either Ric or Caroline a chance to answer as he led them down the hallway and upstairs to his old bedroom and bathroom, which was now two bedrooms and a share bathroom.

Jess's room contained the fireplace with with some the old bathroom attached to it, providing her with a closet, while Ben's was where the bed used to be, which already had Damon's old closet. The shared bathroom was far less luxurious to what had previously occupied the room. The shower was a walk in but half the size of the old one and the bath, although of high quality, was only about half the size of the Damon's tub, which had been able to fit two people. Instead this bath would struggle to fit one adult human. The room was decorated dark gray, almost black tiles and deep red walls, the same as the school colors. The sinks and bath however were white, which brightened the entire look. The overall appearance was slightly gothic, yet clean and welcoming. The toilet itself was in a separate room if the same colors and style.

"The bath's are smaller for the safety of the children. We don't want any accidents." Caroline called through the door as if she knew exactly what Damon and Elena were thinking, regarding the size of the tub. "I'll leave you guys to it." she whispered as she left the room.

"You got any stories to tell, from when you lived here?" Jess asked her parents.

Damon thought for a while, trying to find anything that would be suitable for the ears of an eight and a six year old who don't know their parents were vampires and came up at a loss, however Elena managed to save the day.

"The bed in our new house used to be in this room." she said from Ben's room as she opened the connecting door between the rooms, enabling her to see the hearth from his bedroom. "It used to be here." she said pointing to the spot where it used to be. "One time, before your dad and I got together, when I was dating someone else, I had to come and look after your dad because he was ill." she went on.

"Who were you dating?" Jess asked as both Damon and Elena realized they'd never told the kids about how they fell in love.

"She was dating Uncle Stefan." Damon said sadly.

"I was at school with Uncle Stefan." Elena explained. "We started dating, and that's sorta how I got to know your dad." she said, deciding to omit the fact Damon was initially dating Caroline so she'd have gotten to know him even if she hadn't been with Stefan. "Your dad was in love with someone else. And at first, we didn't even like each other." she said. "But over time, as I got to know your dad a little more, he became...tolerable." Elena frowned.

"Then one day, your mom was taking part in a pageant, and Stefan was supposed to be her escort, but he got caught up in traffic." Damon lied. "So I rescued your mom from being abandoned. And we danced. That was the moment I knew for certain I was falling in love with her." he smiled and took her hand.

"That was the first time I felt something for your dad." Elena told the children in the most tactful manner possible. She couldn't exactly tell them it had led to sexual fantasies about their father, so she came up with something else. "It was first time he was my hero." she smiled at Damon who smirked.

"So did you start dating after that?" Jess asked, fascinated by their love story.

"I wish." Damon snorted.

"I still loved Stefan." Elena told them. "And your dad thought he was in love with another woman, although she didn't love him."

"Who?" Jess asked as Damon and Elena looked at each other uncomfortable.

"Katherine." Damon said quietly.

"Isn't she the one who caused the fire which killed Uncle Stefan?" Ben asked as Damon nodded, unable to say a word. "She sounds mean." he said defensively, raising a smile on Damon and Elena's faces.

"She was very mean." Damon nodded dramatically. "But I was falling in love with your mom more and more." he sighed.

"Why?" Ben asked. "Girls are boring and stupid!" he harrumphed as Damon and Elena laughed.

"You won't be saying that in ten years time." Damon smirked. "Trust me."

"Can we get on with the story?" Jess asked. "We haven't got all day, and I'm getting kinda hungry." she sighed.

"Even though Stefan was my boyfriend, I felt a strange pull to your dad. I was falling for him, no matter what happened." Elena told them. "Then one day awitch cast a spell on him and he got sick, so uncle Stefan searched everywhere to find a cure, which he eventually found otherwise your dad would have died. But for Uncle Stefan to get it he had to leave town for a while." she said. "While we waited for the cure, I was here nursing your dad. And this was the first time he officially told me he loved me." she smiled. "And it was the first time we kissed."

"Gross!" Jess and Ben cried out together.

"Actually it was." Elena agreed. "Your dad was really sick, and he was all sweaty and icky." she glanced up at Damon with a knowing smile. "And that was the start of your dad becoming my best friend." she said.

"Is that the best story you have?" Ben asked sounding unimpressed, raising an eyebrow in the same manner as Damon did, which Elena often found quite unnerving, especially considering how much he, like his sister looked like his father, especially the eyes.

"Well, there was one time Stefan and I got into a fight because I wanted to help your mom and because he was her boyfriend, he got jealous." Damon shrugged.

Ben's eyes lit up. "Who won?" he asked.

"Pft! I did of course." Damon frowned.

"Anyway, that's enough storytelling." Elena interrupted. "Let's go discover the rest of the house." she said as they got up and left the room.

After the tour of the school, they met up in the kitchen and sat around the table having dinner. Vincent was deep in conversation with Ric about the artifacts which he'd been shown while he was having his own private tour. They compared information, and Caroline tried, unsuccessfully to recruit him to the school, although Vincent had proclaimed he was about to become a teaching assistant to probably the most difficult and annoying witch of all time. As neither Caroline nor Ric could disagree with his assessment of Damon, they let him off lightly, although they did say there would always be a position open to him should he choose to leave New Orleans permanently.

Once dinner was over, the hard part was coming, Damon and Elena saying goodbye to their children. They'd had to take blood samples from them, which hurt Elena nearly as much as it hurt the kids. The last thing they wanted was to be parted while the children were uncomfortable. So they decided to run the first medical test right there and then. Could the children take vampire blood, and would it heal them? If so, would it affect their blood samples. Therefore they got ready to take a before and after sample.

The first one was straight forward and simple. Elena took the samples, labeled them and put them in the storage box to be taken to New Orleans. Caroline had hidden some of her blood in strawberry milkshakes, which Damon and Elena knew the kids loved. They drank some of the shakes before Elena took another sample from each and labeled them. They finished their milkshakes only to discover their needle marks had totally gone away.

"Wow that milkshake was good." Jess grinned. "It healed my mark, and I feel different."

"Me too." Ben told them. "I feel, stronger." he said, as Damon noticed their eyes looking different, although he could quite place what it was.

"Um, Caroline, can I have a word." Damon asked as they walked over to the garage. "How much blood did you put in there?" his voice was low and he carried a worried look on his face.

"Three drops each like we agreed." Caroline told him. "Don't worry. I'm not an idiot, I used the pipette like Elena told me." she rolled her eyes.

"Something's wrong." Damon whispered. "I need you to keep a very very close eye on them. I think the vampire blood has triggered something." he said.

"Like what?" Caroline frowned.

"I honestly don't know." he replied as he looked around and saw Elena with her arms around the children, all three of them crying. "Time to get this over with." he sighed as a lump rose in his throat and he made his way to the three of them and joined in with the goodbyes.

After half an hour of tears and false promises to return within a few weeks, the sun had already started to set and it was time to leave. Vincent had already set off back to New Orleans and had placed a cloaking spell on Damon and Elena for their journey to join him in the French Quarter. Fortunately, Damon had already lived there in the forties, meaning he was already familiar with the old streets, but for Elena it was to be a new adventure. One she did not wish to embark upon.

The plan was to pick up the necessities required for their journey from their house and set off immediately, then finding a motel to stay in to get some sleep. However just as they were about to turn down Maple Street, the acrid smell of burning hit their noses. As they looked down the street, they saw a house on fire, to be precise, their house was on fire.

"Fuck, they found us!" Damon swore as he swung the car around and put his foot down, heading out of town, as fast as he could and back to the boarding house.

"How?" Elena cried as she held on tight.

"Who cares, but that's our house on fire." Damon scowled. As soon as this was over he'd have to have it rebuilt again. "And I'm not staying around to find out who lit the match. Although pity we couldn't have thrown a couple of already dead bodies in there, thrown them off the scent a while. But something makes me think all of the dead bodies I buried would be far too gone by now." he frowned.

"Damon!" Elena cried.

"I'm thinking of practical solutions Elena. Recycle already dead corpses. It's not for lack of them buried in unmarked shallow graves around Mystic Falls. I should know, I put a lot of them there when either I or Stefan were going through a humanity crisis or ripper binge."

"That would require a lot of compulsion, which I doubt is an option with Matt as Sheriff, and I don't think he'd be happy to go along with it." Elena frowned. "Plus you'd need the bodies of two children, and that is one thing we don't have, thank god."

"Could you ask Matt to release a statement saying that four bodies were found at the scene?" Damon asked. "It might get them off our tail for a day, maybe give us a head start."

"Fine I'll call Matt." Elena groaned as she pulled her phone out and called the Sheriff.

Once they reached the school, they'd managed to get Matt to agree to pretend four bodies had been found dead at the scene. They'd also managed to get Matt to agree with making sure the cops did not stop them from speeding as they left town. Damon switched off the engine and they got out of the car as Ric opened the front door to the school in confusion in regards to their sudden reappearance.

"What the hell?" Ric asked.

"Want a new car?" Damon replied, throwing him the car keys before heading towards the garage and lifting the door to his old pride and joy. His old blue Camara.

"You know you're not exactly going to be inconspicuous in a car like that these days." Ric raised an eyebrow. "Take mine until you can swap it." he offered, getting the keys out to his own Ford SUV.

"Thanks Ric." Elena told him sadly. "They found us. The house is gone."

"Well then go... NOW!" Ric yelled. "We don't want them coming here." he cried as Damon and Elena scrambled into the new car with their cargo of blood.

"Thanks man." Damon smiled. "I owe you one." he said.

"Hell no, don't sweat it, I got an upgrade." Ric grinned. "Now go!" he told them as Damon put his foot down on the gas and sped out of the driveway and headed towards the highway out of town, heading southwest.

They drove in silence for just over two hours, with Damon at the wheel, while Elena calmed down from crying both from the loss of the house, but more importantly, from leaving the children behind. She noticed Damon hadn't shed a tear, but Elena knew him well enough to know he was holding back until the time was right, and blowing their cover would render the cloaking spell pointless. He was going to let it all out in private, when they were finally safe. Or as safe as they could be. In the meantime, she noticed he'd been checking the mirrors far more frequently than usual, checking to see if they were being followed.

"Is there anyone there?" Elena finally asked, once she'd managed to compose herself.

"No." Damon replied flatly.

"Damon!" Elena sighed as she rested her hand on his knee. "I know you're hurting too." she said.

"It's my fault." Damon said through gritted teeth. "I should have realized earlier. I should have got us out of New York sooner."

"We've done the right thing." Elena assured him.

"I'm not so sure." Damon told her. "Did you see what happened after the milkshake?" he asked.

"They said they felt stronger." Elena shrugged. "Maybe that's how vampire blood affects them."

Damon shook his head. "Humans don't become stronger with vampire blood, they just heal quicker." he told her. "Neither do witches, unless they're a siphoner and using it to fuel magic. The only species vampire blood has the capability of making stronger are vampires themselves when using it as food like you once tried with me." he said.

"But that's not possible." Elena frowned. "They're not vampires."

"Well, they're not human, that's for sure." Damon sighed. "I'm beginning to wonder if they've inherited some vampire type nature."

"Maybe it's related to them having the cure in their blood?" she suggested. "Keelin and I can have a look at their blood samples when we finally get to the lab in New Orleans."

Damon nodded in agreement and thought for a moment. "About that." he said. "I was wondering how Frank would know we were in Mystic Falls. If we were on the run with the cure, where would you think we would run to?" he asked.

Elena thought for a moment. "Baton Rouge to Rebekah and Marcel." she replied, closing her eyes in resignation. "Did you tell him where you were from?" she asked.

"Never told anyone where I was from." Damon sighed. "Someone else who knows me must have told him, and I doubt it's a Mikaelson." he frowned. "Almost everyone thinks I'm dead. Only the inner circle knows I'm alive. It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe a witch accidentally found you." Elena suggested.

"I've been thinking about this ever since we left New York and I think we need to ask Bonbon." Damon said. "Apparently when Enzo died, she created a psychic blast similar to Cade. At first she could see Enzo, but when she got her magic back she couldn't see him, although she could feel his presence."

"Like when Jeremy could see ghosts from the other side?" Elena asked as Damon nodded. "But there is no other side, unless Bonnie accidentally created one." she frowned.

"That's what I've been wondering." Damon told her. "Maybe there were souls in limbo or ones who have died since who ended up in Bonnie's 'Other Side'. That person would be able to see everything. What if there someone on this new other side wanting revenge? Connecting to someone here and then maybe they are trying to get it by chasing us and ruining our lives." he suggested.

"It's a stretch, but plausible. If you are right, that could be any number of people." Elena sighed.

"It's a long list." Damon agreed. "I've pissed off a lot of people in my time." he shook his head. "But if would depend on how far back in time it goes. Is it for people who were in limbo and have died since the psychic blast?"

"Maybe Freya can find something out. She's powerful." Elena suggested. "If Bonnie can't contact Enzo, she won't be able to contact anyone on the other side."

"Call Freya, tell her what happened." Damon instructed her.

Elena took her phone from her pocket and called the witch on loudspeaker, who picked up almost immediately.

"Hey Elena, how did it go?" Freya asked.

"A lot of tears." "Was about as much as Elena could tell her.

"I can imagine." Freya replied.

"We've got a problem." Elena got straight to the point. "After we dropped the kids off, we went back to the house, but someone had torched it." she said. "They knew we were in Mystic Falls even though there is no one alive who should know where we're from." she said. "So we think the person who knew where we were might be dead and instructing Frank to track us down."

"Look, just come to New Orleans." Freya insisted. "We've gotten everything set up for you. Keelin and I have been working all day on the lab. It consists of two sections, the medical science part, and the magic area." she told her. "Once you are inside, a barrier spell will be put in place so that no vampire or witch can get in without an invitation. It's an extremely powerful spell, although it will restrict your sightseeing I'm afraid." she said. "Plus, New Orleans is officially a vampire free zone. You'll be safe everywhere here."

"I'm not interested in seeing the city until I know we're all safe and I can bring the children." Elena replied. "I'm just concerned I'm leading Frank right to you."

"I'm sure we've dealt with worse than a rogue vampire or two." Freya laughed. "We're Mikaelson's, death, mayhem and torture, it's all in a normal day's work for us." she laughed.

"Look, we just want to get rid of what or who is behind Frank chasing us, learn a bit of magic, be gone and get the kids." Damon complained. "Return to a normal life."

"Once you are no longer the cure, you can be reunited with them." Freya assured him. "But they still need to go to school, so are you going to deny them an education? It was the same when Hope left. At first it was hard, but once we realized she was having a great time, we stopped worrying as much. Hope loves it there. She's with people her own age who have similar abilities. They'll be safer and better off around children who are going through the same thing as she is." she said.

"You say that now, but you'll feel different when you've got kids of your own." Elena replied.

"Probably." Freya agreed. "But I know from Hope's experience how much my kids will enjoy it, which I guess makes it easier." she argued. "And you are literally saving their lives."

"I guess I'm just going to need to keep being reminded of that part." Elena sighed.

"I will." Freya told her. "Just get here as soon as you can. There's a cloaking spell on you, but if anyone knows your car, it won't be much good." she said.

"We're just going to take it in turns and keep moving." Damon told her.

"We should be there by late morning, can you have a bed made up so we can crash out when we get there?" Elena asked.

"Make sure it's a strong one, we've been known to break beds." Damon added.

"Damon!" Elena admonished as he threw her a cheeky grin, the first time she'd seen anything close to genuine humor from him for the last twenty four hours. Damon's wit was often something she relied upon to help diffuse tense situations. But when he lost that part of himself, which was his mask and relied on more than she did she knew he was suffering.

"Don't worry, they're Original vampire proof beds here. Us humans have no chance of damaging them." Freya laughed. "We're setting you up in Rebekah's old room." she added. "Look, I need to get going, Keelin and I have a date tonight." she told them.

"Oh, good luck." Elena smiled.

"Hope you get lucky." Damon added.

They all wished each other goodnight before hanging up. Once she'd put her phone away, Elena snuggled down into the passenger seat to try and get some sleep, but it was no use as she was on edge. She'd reasoned herself into a good enough place to feel less tearful about the kids going to school. It had been on the cards for years, ever since their magic had become apparent. Jess should have started two years earlier and Ben was due to start this year, but they'd wanted them to start together as they hadn't spent much time around other children and would, in likelihood find it overwhelming. At least this way they would initially have each other until they found their own sets of friends.

This meant the plan had been for them to start school in another few weeks. And although they would board there like normal students, Damon and Elena would get to see them around Mystic Falls, meaning it wouldn't be as much of a loss. Elena would have her practice and Damon owned the Mystic Grill. It wasn't part of his chain of bars in New York. Damon had bought the Grill as a separate entity as soon as it came up for sale. It was his way of making him feel closer to home. He'd set it up in Enzo's name, hoping nobody from New York would trace it back to him.

Being dragged to New Orleans was a change of plan none of them anticipated, although Elena suspected it was less of a shock for Damon. She'd never been allowed to know any of the contingencies Damon and Marcel had planned as over the last year should Damon be discovered as the cure. This was because the stakes had been raised once Rebekah had been brought into the picture with taking the cure before Damon died, even though Damon no longer suspected that was the reason they were being chased. It wasn't known whether the cure would work if Damon died before it was administrated and Marcel wasn't prepared to risk the chance of losing it for Rebekah. But Marcel's determination for Rebekah to be allowed to take it if she chose to was clearly a priority and had to be kept top secret, the less people knew about their plans, the better. Elena doubted even Rebekah knew the details.

Like Damon, this was what had confused Elena. If the plans had been so top secret, how did anyone know where she and Damon were? How did anyone even know Rebekah planned on taking the cure? Or was it a coincidence and a stray Traveler had worked out the cure would give them back their magic and had given the secret away after one too many drinks? Could it really be a vengeful spirit from the other side wanting to make their life a misery? There were too many questions to be asked and it was going to be at least another twelve hours wait before she would know the answers.

Elena closed her eyes knowing she would be driving for five hours shortly, before Damon took over the last part of the journey as he was familiar with New Orleans, and this was her first visit. She settled down and was soon fast asleep.

"Elena, we're nearly here." Elena heard Damon say softly as she opened her eyes to bright sunlight. She looked over her shoulder and could see they'd just crossed a large expanse of water. "I figured to wait until we were over the bridge before I woke you up." he smiled as she sat up and kissed him on the cheek.

Elena looked out of the windows, as the landscape quickly went from trees to what looked like warehouses. About ten minutes later, she could just make out the New Orleans skyline appear on her left hand side. A knot of excitement twisted in her stomach at the sight. The thought of finally being able to visit the city she'd wanted to see since she before her parents died gave her a little bit of a kick.

"I've always wanted to visit New Orleans." Elena told Damon. "Ironically, ever since I read Interview with a Vampire just before my parents died." she laughed. "I think that was what put me off being a vampire."

"Anne Rice put you off being a vampire?" Damon frowned. "Twilight and the sparkly stuff I get, but The Vampire Chronicles." he shook his head laughing. "That would have sealed the deal to want to be a vampire."

"It was because of Claudia, a young girl who grew to be a woman eternally trapped in a child's body which was a huge factor." Elena sighed. "But it was worse. Although you were able to grow as a person, it had it's limits. I believe you have matured more in the last nine years than the previous hundred and fifty." she said.

Damon thought for a moment. "I guess you're right. You can only mature so much as a vampire." he said. "I never really thought of it that way. Maybe it is because the experiences you have make you mature as a vampire, but they don't apply to being human. And that was your reasoning?" he asked, but this time the question wasn't sarcastic, it was deadly serious.

"That and the whole killing, blood drinking and never being able to have a family part." Elena nodded. "Pretty much."

"Now you're older and a mom, if you thought becoming a vampire would save the kids, would you do it?" Damon asked.

"I'd do anything to protect them." Elena told him. "So yes I would. But that is the one thing we can't do." she smiled.

"Hmm." Damon replied thoughtfully, which caused Elena to frown, wondering if he was up to something. Becoming vampires again could potentially eradicate their problems, but it was completely impossible, and was confusing her why Damon was even thinking about it.

They stayed silent for a few moments, which Elena decided to break with the inevitable question. "How much further?" she asked.

"This is us." Damon told her, as she looked up and saw the exit sign for St Bernard Ave.

Elena checked her phone and saw it was almost eleven am, before taking in the sights around her. Damon turned left down a narrow road and immediately she saw properties which looked old, but she knew they weren't quite there. As Damon made his way through the twists and turns, the old fashioned buildings she'd seen on TV and in movies, which she associated with New Orleans began to take shape. Eventually they pulled up outside a building of red brick with green shutters. Damon stood outside what were two huge white doors. He knocked and one of the doors opened, revealing Freya's smiling face. She quickly scanned the area as she beckoned them inside and closed the door as soon as they'd crossed the threshold.

"Welcome to the Mikaelson residence, formally known as the Abattoir." Freya smiled as she gave Elena a hug and Damon a nod.

"Nice name. I'd have kept it." Damon frowned as Elena rolled her eyes.

"Did Vincent get back okay?" Elena asked Freya.

"He stopped off at a motel for a few hours." she replied. "He'd been driving all day. He couldn't do all night on the road as well. But he called about an hour ago and told me he would be here this afternoon, if the traffic holds up." Freya smiled. "Do you want me to show you to your room?" she asked.

"Please." Damon sighed. "I'm beat."

Damon and Elena followed Freya into the courtyard and up a set of stairs. At the top was a doorway which led to what appeared to be an apartment.

"The kitchen is at the end of that hallway." Freya told them, pointing towards an open door which they could just make out a large refrigerator. "Either side you have the parlor and the dining room. Both doors will be open and I'll be in one of those rooms." she said as Keelin's head popped out of one of the rooms.

"Hi you guys!" she called out quietly.

"Hi Keelin." Elena waved back.

"Hey." Damon smiled.

"This way." Freya told them as she turned in the other direction and led them to a door at the far end of the hallway. "This is your room, it's the furthest away from mine and Keelin's. I've spelled it soundproof both ways." she smiled knowingly. "There's a bathroom inside. Join us when you wake up."

"Thanks Freya." Elena smiled.

"Thank you." Damon added.

"No problem." Freya smiled back. "Sleep well." she said and left.

Damon opened the door to an opulent looking room decorated in red wallpaper. The bed was an old large wooden four poster, although not as big as Damon's own now destroyed bed. The floor was dark wood, yet the room felt airy. A door on the opposite wall to the bed must have led to the bathroom, but Elena and Damon especially, were shattered. Damon had done the majority of the driving, Elena had done a short middle stint while he'd unsuccessfully attempted to sleep, but at least he'd rested. The bed looked too inviting for sleep and any other bedroom activities would have to be put on hold until then.

Elena placed her purse and the bag containing the children's blood at the side of the bed before they both stripped off their clothes and climbed in. Elena curled up and Damon lay behind her, his arms wrapped around her waist. She twisted her neck so she could look up at Damon.

"I love you." she whispered as Damon raised his head and kissed her.

"I love you too baby." he said quietly as he drew her into him, before settling down and falling fast asleep.

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

** Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon). **

**Warning, this chapter contains sexually explicit content.**

Elena turned over and snuggled up to Damon, who instinctively wrapped his arms around her and pulled her possessively tight into his chest. As groggy as she was, Elena knew Damon was minutes from waking as it was customary for him to do this just before he woke. Elena simply lay there in his arms, their naked bodies entwined as she enjoyed the sense of security it brought, because the moment they got up, that would, in all likelihood disappear as they faced the real world of being chased by a very old vampire.

Thanks to Marcel Gerard, New Orleans was now a vampire free zone. Any unwanted vampire who entered the city, especially the French Quarter, was fair game to all witches, werewolves and humans. If a vampire was visiting family or friends, as long as they notified the relevant authorities, they had access to the areas they needed to go to. However if they entered without an invite, a spell would alert those who were tasked with securing the city. Freya had already notified the authorities that they were expecting a hostile vampire of up to five hundred years old to try to enter the city, possibly with others. Therefore the witches, wolves and human factions were already on the lookout. Even if Damon and Elena hadn't have gone to New Orleans, it was still the most obvious place for them to go to stay safe, so the alert would have still been in place. At least they had plenty of backup to destroy the vampire in question.

Elena just wished it hadn't come to this, having to leave their kids at such a young age nearly killed her. But she knew even without the rogue vampire, the kids would have had to go to the Salvatore school sooner rather than later, they were becoming too powerful for Damon and Elena to cope with alone. Unfortunately it had been sooner instead of later.

Elena noticed Damon's breathing change, signaling he was waking up. He pressed his hips against hers, his morning wood in evidence as it always was from cuddling her in a morning. Elena opened her eyes to see Damon's dark eyelashes fanning his pale skin. No matter whether awake or asleep, he was beautiful to look at, and Elena often had to pinch herself to remind herself how lucky she was to find not only a devoted, loyal, wonderfully sweet man, but one who just happened to be, as far as Elena was concerned, one of the hottest and sexiest men on the planet. Damon could have practically any woman he wanted, yet he never even glanced at another woman. Instead, he only had eyes for her, giving Elena a sense of security, knowing she could completely trust him. An amazing feat considering the man she first met was a notorious womanizer.

The one thing about Damon which hadn't changed since becoming human again was his insatiable sexual appetite. Fortunately for Damon, he only had to give a certain 'look' to Elena, which she found completely irresistible and would end up just as horny for him as he was for her. And unsurprisingly, the moment he opened his eyes, he gave her the 'look' which made her melt, yet feel hot and wet all at the same time. Whenever he did this, she was done for. He might as well have been compelling her for all the resistance she was able to muster up.

"Mornin sunshine." Damon grinned as he pulled Elena's leg over his thigh, allowing his shaft to rub up against her ever dampening core.

"Good morning sexy." Elena lifted her head and kissed him, as he rolled them over and pushed Elena onto her back.

Damon's hands roamed down Elena's body as his lips followed, stopping at her breasts to suck and lick, causing them to harden. Once finished he made his way down to her core, kissing her stomach along the way. As soon as his mouth reached Elena's nub, she bucked her hips with pleasure, before Damon made his way down until his tongue met her entrance. He began to massage her nub with his thumb, while inserting his tongue inside her, hitting her sweet spot every time. He knew exactly how to send Elena into orbit, and the heat inside her was building up so rapidly, she thought she was about to peak right then. However Damon had read her body perfectly and transferred it mouth to licking and sucking on her nub and labia, while thrusting two fingers inside her, gently at first before picking up the pace until her body shattered.

"Damon...yes...argh..." Elena cried out softly. Being quiet during an orgasm had become the norm since having children. Instead Elena grabbed tightly onto Damon's hair with one hand, and the pillow with the other, all the while the spasms in her core seemed to expand right through her entire body, in a heated and violent manner. Elena arched her back and her body went rigid, as Damon slowed down his ministrations. Eventually he stopped and kissed his way back up Elena's body. "I love you." Elena whispered breathlessly as she came down from the high of her climax..

"I love you too." Damon replied with a loving smile, which was reserved only for her, as he slowly pushed his length inside her, stretching and filling her perfectly, as if their bodies were made for one another.

Damon thrust inside her, slowly at first as their hips moved in unison, a rhythm they had perfected over the years. Morning sex was always a little slower, more tender and considered. It was their way to be united against whatever problems they faced. Whether it be fixing broken toys or dealing with rogue vampires, they were a team, and the act of making love in a morning only reinforced that feeling towards one another. The worse things got, the more they needed each other, and that particular morning, or late afternoon in this case, things weren't looking good. This meant their need for each other was simply heightened.

Their pace increased as they came closer to their release. Damon laced his fingers through Elena's as they kissed each other with a furious passion. Suddenly Elena realized she was getting close. She unlaced her fingers from his. Elena grabbed Damon's butt cheeks and pulled them in towards her, as if she were trying to help him penetrate deeper. This was a subconscious move on Elena's part, however Damon knew it meant she was close, which was lucky, because so was he.

Damon ghosted his fingers down Elena's body and slid his hand between them, finding her nub, which he began to circle with his thumb. Elena's breaths became ragged as the heat building up in her core suddenly erupted and spasms of pleasure wreaked havoc throughout her body once more.

"Fuck...Damon, oh yes..." she cried in a whisper. "Oh, argh."

Damon's thrusting became more frantic as Elena's orgasm began milk Damon's shaft, and triggering his own release.

"Oh yes...fuck...Elena...uh argh..." he cried into the pillow next to Elena's ear as her back arched and her body went rigid. Damon lifted his head up and thrust inside her one more time, as Elena felt his warm seed fill her, while Damon's brow creased and his lips parted as he reveled in his own climax.

Almost as soon as he'd finished, he collapsed on top of Elena, trying to regain his breath, but now he was human other things took precedence. Reluctantly he pulled out of Elena and climbed out of bed, as Elena followed him straight into the bathroom. One of the things Damon hated about being human was not being able to relax and cuddle after morning sex. Instead nature called with more urgency than it did when he was a vampire, which meant an immediate trip to the bathroom. A point which Elena found hard to disagree with. In fact, as time went on, there were a number of things Elena missed about being a vampire. Primarily compulsion. Not that she agreed with messing with people's minds, but the thought of making sure the kids ate the right food, cleared their toys away, and in future did their homework, would have been extremely useful as a parent. Although, admittedly, she knew it wouldn't work on Jess and Ben as they were witches. But the notion was nice, however the price of being a vampire was not being able to have a family, and for both Damon and Elena, it was too high a price to pay. They suspected it had already cost them in the amount of children they'd had.

Both Damon and Elena had wanted more kids, but after Ben was born, Elena's powers became stronger. Elena suspected this had something to do with them not being able to have any more children since. Initially after Ben was born, Elena started taking birth control to allow her to finish med school and work out how to be parents to two baby witches. Two years ago, they decided it was the right time to have another baby. Elena stopped taking her birth control, and they expected her to get pregnant straight away like the previous two times. However, even though her and Damon made love almost twice daily, nothing had happened. Why the sudden change, when she'd been so fertile before seemed odd, leading them both to suspect her increased powers may have stripped away her ability to have more children. However they knew this problem could also be related to them both being vampires. Because the circumstances were complicated, they suspected normal fertility clinics wouldn't find anything wrong with them as the cause was supernatural, not physical. Therefore they'd just about given up, although if Elena did become pregnant once more, it would be the icing on the cake for their almost perfect life.

Initially they had been devastated by the lack of pregnancy, but as time moved on and the children got older, and more powerful with age, Damon and Elena had decided it might have been a blessing in disguise. It was hard enough looking after two powerful witches, three would have been almost impossible, although that was no longer going to be much of an issue now Jess and Ben were at school. However they now had other concerns, therefore more children was no longer a priority. But even though it appeared they could no longer procreate, it didn't stop them from trying.

Half an hour later they'd finished showering and getting dressed. They made their way to the parlor to discover it wasn't morning, instead it was 4pm. They hadn't slept too long, meaning they would sleep later that night. Waiting for them in the parlor was Freya, Vincent and Keelin.

"Good morning." Damon grinned as they sat down to join the others. "So what do we know?" he asked.

"I ran some blood tests." Keelin started. "Now, this isn't an exact science as discovering magical DNA is fairly new. Unless of course the doctors at Whitmore did some research in that field." she added.

"I doubt that." Damon interrupted. "All they wanted to know was what were the healing properties of vampire blood and how they could destroy vampires." he grimaced.

"That information would still prove useful." Keelin explained. "One of the ways I can find out if the children have any vampire blood permanently running through their system is to check the healing properties. That is if there is some way of identifying those properties." she said.

"The Augustine's were working on vampires for decades, they must have found something, even if they couldn't replicate it." Elena agreed.

"So retrieving the Augustine vampire experiments, needs to be added to our ever growing to do list." Damon sighed.

"I'm afraid so." Vincent finally spoke. "You see, I think I've found something in your tests which might also explain the added power they have." he said.

"Even more power?" Elena frowned.

"Not just them, but you two as well." he told them. "I think you have siphoning abilities."

"Is that even possible?" Elena asked.

"If you'd have asked forty eight hours ago, I would have said no." Vincent admitted. "But I have never seen so many abilities in anyone else before." he shook his head.

"So how come we haven't been siphoning each other and the kids?" Damon asked. "And how come they've not been siphoning us?"

"If you don't know you are a siphon, then you would do it without thinking about it." Freya explained. "For that it usually happens if you are stressed or angry." she shrugged. "Maybe your lives are so content, you have never used it." she frowned.

"The alternative is you still have dormant vampire blood in your bodies." Keelin told them. "Not that you can become vampires again, but you've only been cured of the symptoms, there's a good chance it hasn't entirely removed the vampire magic from your body." With that comment Damon and Freya exchanged furtive glances, which didn't go unnoticed by Elena, which she meant to confront him with when they had a moment alone.

"You think that's why vampire blood doesn't heal us?" Elena asked as Keelin nodded.

"Vampire blood doesn't heal vampires. Only human blood does that." she said.

"Are you suggesting we drink human blood to heal?" Damon pulled a face of disgust.

"The cure has removed all symptoms and perks of being a vampire. So no, human blood won't do anything for you." she said. "Unfortunately, we're limited on what tests we can do as neither of you have living relatives who can be of any use. Only Elena's maternal line and Damon's paternal line would be of any use to us. And even if Stefan and Katherine were still alive, they'd also taken the cure and were both doppelgangers. They'd be helpful in looking at Elena but no use when it comes to Damon, which is why we need the stuff from Whitmore. And we could really do with it as soon as possible." she told them.

"It's not at Whitmore." Elena told them. "Doctor Maxwell took all of the Augustine research to a warehouse, where he continued his work unfunded. As far as I know, nobody kept the information. It's missing." she said sadly.

"About that..." Damon grimaced. "That's not exactly true." he said.

"Where is it?" Elena asked.

"I stole it." Damon shrugged. "It's somewhere safe in a storage facility in New York."

"Not a lot of good it being there." Freya sighed, folding her arms.

"Marcel and Rebekah have a copy." Damon explained. "It was one of the reasons they funded the lab."

"What could they possibly want with the Augustine research?" Elena frowned.

"Oh I don't know." Damon replied sarcastically. "Maybe when Rebekah becomes human, she might want to start a family. Now the problem there is Marcel in his current vampire form is of no use to her. They've exhausted all magical options..."

"So they're turning to science instead." Keelin interrupted as Damon smiled and nodded.

"Exactly!" he replied.

"Does that mean they just need to email it over to the lab?" Keelin asked excitedly.

"Um..." Damon hesitated. "These records go back to 1940. Email won't cut it. It took me weeks to transfer it all onto digital copies. Even if they just produce a digital copy of the research, I suspect it would take years to go through it all. Not only that, the practices back then were very basic. A lot of the earlier stuff could have incorrect test results." he said. "But they do have my records from my time as a vampire. Maybe you can work things out from that, see what changes have occurred since I became human." he suggested.

Keelin took her phone out of her back pocket. "I'll call Rebekah, get her to make a copy of the records and I can pick them up on her way to the lab." she said as she left the room to make the call.

"Well, that's one problem solved." Damon grinned. "What's next on the dastardly agenda?" he asked.

"The other side?" Elena said.

"What of it?" Vincent frowned. "It no longer exists." he said.

"Good point." Damon nodded. "Although there might be a new other side."

"How?" Freya frowned.

"A few years ago, our friend Bonnie, who is a Bennett witch, created a psychic blast." Damon told them.

"You think she might have re-created the other side?" Vincent looked at Damon in shock.

"More like she created a new one." Elena told them. "Stefan killed her boyfriend Enzo and apparently that did something. She talked it over with Cade..."

"The devil?" Vincent raised an eyebrow as Damon and Elena both nodded.

"And he tried to find his way in to find Enzo. You see, Bonnie put Enzo into this alternate universe where only she could see him." Damon explained. "At the time she'd lost her magic. Once she got her magic back, she couldn't see him or go to that other dimension anymore."

"Qetsiyah created the other side. And she was an ancestor of Bonnie's." Elena explained. "But I guess you could call hell the first kind of other side."

"There's no evidence to say Cade was related to Bonnie." Damon shook his head. "But we can't rule it out. It would make sense, why she and Qetsiyah could create a new dimension to house the souls of the dead if they were all related." he said.

"So what are you implying?" Vincent asked.

"When people were on the other side, they could see what was happening to people in the land of the living." Damon explained. "If someone died and came back to life, they could communicate with someone they knew on the other side. What if someone from the other side told Frank where we were." he suggested.

"Have you spoke to Bonnie about this?" Freya asked.

"Uh uh." Elena shook her head.

"We wanted qualified witches to talk it over with her." Damon interrupted.

"That's why we waited until we got here. Plus she's in Greece, we need to make sure she is awake." Elena added. "What's the time difference?" she asked.

"Eight hours." Freya checked her phone. "It's after midnight." she shook her head.

"Pft, Bon Bon won't be asleep yet." Damon shrugged. "The night is young, and the ouzo is still flowing." he added dramatically.

"I'll call her." Elena sighed as she got out her cell and pressed Bonnie's speed dial. She put her phone on loud speaker so everyone could hear when moments later there was a crackle on the other end and the ringing stopped.

"Elena? Is that you?" Bonnie asked.

"Nope. It's me!" Damon replied before Elena got to say anything.

"Damon, shut up!" Elena chided him. "Yes Bonnie it's me." she said. "How's Greece?" she asked.

"Fascinating." Bonnie replied. "So, how can I help?" she asked.

"How did you know we wanted anything?" Damon asked.

"It's turned midnight here. If it wasn't urgent you wouldn't call." Bonnie replied.

"We don't want anything, we just want to run a theory by you." Elena explained. "I've got Vincent and Freya here with us to discuss it too. It might be for your benefit as much as ours." she said.

"Doubt it, but I'm all ears, so go ahead, what is it?" Bonnie replied.

"You remember the psychic blast and you trapping Enzo into another dimension?" Damon started.

"Yes." Bonnie said slowly.

"Do you think you possibly created an entirely new other side?" Freya asked.

"I dunno, I guess it's possible. Why?" Bonnie asked.

"Someone torched our new house." Damon told her.

"The rebuilt Gilbert house?" Bonnie asked.

"Did everyone know about this except me?" Elena asked as a chorus of yes's came from Damon, Bonnie, Freya and Vincent.

"Yes Bon Bon, the rebuilt Gilbert House that cost not only a small fortune but housed my old bed." Damon said angrily. "There were only nine people in the know about that house and who was having it built, none of which would have spilled. So whoever knew about it was aware that it was an exact replica of the old Gilbert house. The only other people who would know that information who could it to me are dead." he continued.

"If Bonnie had created another other side, who could be there who could link you to that house. Friend or foe." Vincent asked.

"So there's Anna, Jenna, Uncle John..." Elena started.

"Isobel, Stefan, Katherine." Damon continued.

"Klaus and Elijah." Bonnie added.

"Liz." Damon suggested.

"The entire Lockwood family." Elena raised an eyebrow at Damon. "And Lexi."

"Rose and Andie." Damon sighed.

"One of Klaus's hybrid minions." Elena frowned.

"Oh yeah, Tony." Damon nodded. "And Noah, the pizza guy who Jeremy let in."

"Vicki and Kelly Donovan would work it out by association." Elena suggested. "I think that's them all."

"And who would want to get revenge?" Freya asked.

"The list of who wouldn't want revenge on Damon is probably smaller." Bonnie offered.

"Actually I don't think it is." Elena frowned. "Only one name stands out." she whispered in horror.

"Katherine." Damon said as Elena nodded.

"Wasn't she destroyed in the hell fire?" Bonnie asked.

"She was, but I guess it means she is no longer the Queen of hell. Although I seriously doubt it's her."

"Bonnie, do you think you can try and find out if you are by any chance related to Cade?" Vincent asked.

"I've got a lead on the original travelers, before the great divide." Bonnie told them. "There are some artifacts in Crete which look promising. There might be something tying Qetsiyah to Cade. Who knows." she said. "I'm flying out there tomorrow night." she told them. "I'm hoping to be back home next week." she added.

"Hope you've been practicing your ancient Greek." Damon mocked.

"Actually I'm well versed on the subject." Bonnie said smugly. "It comes in handy to know these languages when you're a witch. I'm sure Vincent and Freya will explain all of this to you during your lessons." she added as Damon looked in horror towards Vincent and Freya who nodded.

"Why couldn't the ancient Greek witches just create spells in English or Latin?" Damon huffed. "Or even Italian. Those I can do." he shrugged.

"It's because, like you just said, your ancient ancestors are Greek." Bonnie stated in a matter of fact voice. "Some are mine are too. And the language they spoke was by some shocking coincidence, ancient Greek." she added with a tone of voice which suggested she was rolling her eyes as she stated the obvious.

"So do you think you can find a way to see if there is another other side?" Elena asked.

"I can help you find out, that's if you are able to find willing human volunteers." Bonnie told them. "I'll email the spell to create another Gilbert ring." she suggested. "Freya or Vincent shouldn't have any problems with that spell." she said.

"I thought it required a Bennett witch." Elena frowned.

"It requires the blood of a Bennett witch." Vincent corrected her.

"Bonnie already donated to the cause." Freya smiled. "A couple of drops should be enough." she said. "That would be great Bonnie if you could send me the spell." she thanked her.

"So once we've made the new Gilbert ring, all we need is a willing human volunteer to die and visit the other side to see if there's anyone there, make contact and hopefully talk it over with a ghost." Elena asked.

"That's about it." Bonnie replied.

"That's easy. We'll get Matt to do it." Damon suggested. "He knows the drill by now." he grinned.

"Matt already has a Gilbert ring." Bonnie told them. "And that is for emergency use only. He's already died and been brought back too many times for my liking. We need a human who hasn't been revived by the Gilbert ring before." she said.

"I'll do it." Keelin offered as she walked back into the room, straight from her conversation with Rebekah.

"Uh-uh!" Freya shook her head. "I'm not letting you sacrifice yourself." she insisted.

"Um...do you guys mind if I get going?" Bonnie asked. "It's late here, I'm tired and I'm not in the mood to listen to domestics." she yawned.

"Sure Bonnie. Goodnight." Elena smiled.

"Night night Bon Bon." Damon called out.

"Goodnight everyone." Bonnie replied, hanging up before anyone else could speak.

"I don't mind." Keelin told Freya, ignoring the other conversation. "I want to do it, in the interests of science and for me." she said.

"And how does that help you at work?" Freya raised an eyebrow.

"Whenever you lose a patient, it hurts." Keelin explained as Elena nodded in understanding. "If I can get some idea of what they can expect, maybe it will hurt less when I do lose them." she shrugged. "And when I talk to the families, I might be able to give them assurance about where their loved one has gone." she said.

"What if it doesn't work?" Freya folded her arms.

"Oh they work alright." Damon interrupted. "I've lost count of how many times Little Gilbert and Donovan have died wearing those things. Although they no longer work on Jeremy as he's a hunter and supernatural now." he shrugged.

"They're both fine." Elena added.

"Debatable." Damon muttered, earning him a stern glare from Elena.

"So the rumors about people going crazy are inaccurate?" Freya raised an eyebrow.

"Not entirely." Damon grimaced. "But that was because of your crazy ass mother." he said.

"She was infiltrating them, filling them with ideas while they were dead. Turning them against vampires and into killers." Elena explained.

"Well I doubt she'll be doing that again." Vincent shrugged.

"True." Freya nodded in agreement before looking to Keelin. "Are you really sure you want to do this?" she asked. "I couldn't stand the thought of you getting hurt." she walked over to her and cupped her face in her hands. "If anything should happen to you, I don't know what I'd do." she whispered.

"I'll be fine." Keelin insisted, kissing Freya on the lips and stroking her hair. "You worry too much." she chided.

"Okay, fine." Freya conceded. "I'll make the Gilbert ring when I get the spell." she sighed.

"What did Marcel and Rebekah have to say?" Elena asked Keelin.

"Marcel is copying the Augustine files right now." Keelin told her. "Rebekah called Damaris, who's on vampire guard duty tonight, and told her she and Marcel would be visiting as they had something for us. I called Damaris right after and confirmed it was urgent which was why they were bringing the package in person. The human faction and the wolves have already been made aware, nobody will touch them while they are here." she said. "Marcel said he and Rebekah would be here in a couple of hours."

"Wonderful." Elena sighed. She and Rebekah had come to a mutual understanding of each other, however they did have the ability to wind one another up. Elena knew it stemmed from the time she stumbled across Rebekah leaving the Salvatore boarding house after Rebekah had spent the night with Damon. It had been the first time in her life she had felt true jealousy, and some part of Elena couldn't forget the sight of them stood at the door, Rebekah still in her cocktail dress from the previous night, and Damon half naked, not having bothered to fully dress.

Damon had slept with Rebekah to spite Elena and to test her, see how she really felt about him. Rebekah had done it because she thought Damon had a thing for her and her need to be loved and wanted was being fed. Of course he didn't want her, leading to a nasty torture incident. But that was water under the bridge, as far as Damon was concerned. Elena wasn't even sure if Marcel knew about Damon and Rebekah's history. She suspected not, because if he did, she wasn't sure whether Marcel would be as helpful to the Salvatore's as he was. That was why, when Marcel was around, Elena pretended to get along with Rebekah far more than she genuinely wanted to. Nobody knew how she still felt about this one event, not even Damon was aware that it had bothered her more than she let on. It was the only time she had seen Damon straight after sex with a woman other than herself. Elena knew she was being ridiculous as she had intentionally rubbed hers and Stefan's relationship in Damon's face, even when she knew he was in love with her. Therefore she had no reason to be snippy with Damon. So instead she took it out on Rebekah.

"So what do we do while we're waiting?" Damon asked.

"I wouldn't mind going through some of the lab work with Elena." Keelin suggested. "Show her what I've been up to. Bring her up to speed of what kind of research we are looking into. I've got a lot of it documented here on my computer." she said.

Elena nodded. "I think that would be a great idea." she smiled.

"And we can get to work to see how much Damon has been paying attention to his magic lessons." Vincent smirked as Damon's face fell. "See how much you've bothered to learn, and if we can improve on that." he added.

Damon looked at Vincent defiantly. "It's a good job I'm not a vampire anymore." he said. "Necks snap easily when threatened." he growled.

"Damon!" Elena snapped. "They're only trying to help. You knew we both had to do this. I know I'm behind because of work, but you were supposed to be learning this with the kids."

"I know I know." Damon screwed his face up miserably. "I just looked at the spells and showed the kids what they were. I never bothered to learn how to do it without a grimoire."

"So you were just able to look at a spell and instinctively know exactly how much power you needed to use to perform it?" Freya asked looking confused.

"Yeah." Damon replied slowly, raising an eyebrow. "Is there something wrong?" he asked looking at Vincent and Freya's worried faces.

"I've never heard of an untutored witch having that much self control before." Vincent shook his head.

"For almost a century and a half I was a vampire." Damon explained. "You have to learn to adjust to your new strength and power very quickly. Holding a glass and applying the same amount of pressure as you did when you were human would result in the glass shattering in your hands." he shrugged. "You have to learn very quickly how to hold it without breaking it. Practicing magic is exactly the same, you work out how strong you are, and the self control is second nature. Although I still can't master a good cloaking spell." he frowned.

"It still sounds a little too advanced." Freya sighed. "I'll get some grimoires." she said as she left to go to her study.

"And you can come with me and we can study our own version of magic." Keelin said to Elena as she followed her down the hall to Keelin's study, leaving Damon and Vincent sat alone in the parlor.

"Are you ready for this?" Vincent asked.

"No." Damon admitted. "But if it helps my kids, I'll do it." he agreed.

"Good, because we won't go easy on you." Vincent warned. "Be ready for a rough two hours." he smirked.

  
  


 

 


	7. Chapter 7

** Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to The Vampire Diaries, TV show or books. However I decided to have a little play around with the characters (I would definitely like to play with Damon). **

Damon was sat on the couch in front of the fire, arms folded and scowling. For the last half an hour he'd been trying to light a candle with little success. He was even more annoyed as this was one of the few spells he'd actually mastered. However this wasn't how he'd been lighting the candles, he was using an incantation he'd made up based on what he knew Bonnie did, and from his own slightly limited knowledge of Latin. Damon hadn't told Freya or Vincent any of this information, they were his teachers, they were supposed to teach him the correct spells, not for him to make them up.

"You're not trying hard enough." Freya insisted. "You just have to look at the candle and want to light it." she said.

"I thought you said you'd mastered lighting candles." Vincent frowned.

"I have." Damon pouted. "Just not the way you are showing me." he admitted.

"As long as you're not tapping into dark magic, there is no right or wrong way." Vincent told him. "Regardless of their heritage, every witch casts spells differently. That is why we use grimoires. To keep a record should we ever need to use the spell again or for it to be reversed by you or another witch." he said.

"Haven't you studied these spells to see if they work?" Freya asked.

"I'm too old to study." Damon complained.

Vincent rolled his eyes. "Fine!" he said shaking his head and holding his hands up in resignation. "If you don't want to help yourself, I'm not going to waste my time and magic helping you." he threatened.

"I didn't say I won't." Damon quickly backtracked. "It's just harder to learn new skills as you get older." he insisted

"Ahem." Freya interrupted. "I'm over a thousand years old and I'm not too old to learn, so don't give me that crap." she sneered at him. "I'm also biologically older than you, so don't use that excuse either." she shook her head. "Now use the incantation you've been using to light a candle." she folded her arms and glared at him.

Damon sighed. "Fine." he coughed and turned to look at the candle. "Phasmatos ignem accende lucernam." he said snarkily.

"You need to put more effort into it than..." Vincent started, but suddenly stopped as the candle in front of them lit. "Okay, you weren't even concentrating. And that wasn't ancient Greek which is what I'd have thought Travelers used." he frowned. "How did you do that?" he asked.

"I said the words and it lit." Damon raised an eyebrow.

"Did you feel the need to want it to light?" Freya asked as Damon shook his head.

"Didn't have to. The words were enough to convince the candle to light itself." Damon shrugged.

"Wait, that's not how you perform spells." Vincent frowned. "Magic is practiced through need, not instruction."

"Did you use it like compulsion?" Freya asked.

"It's the only way I could figure out how to do it." Damon explained. "After being a vampire for a hundred and fifty odd years, you tend to get into habits. You don't ask for things, or want things. You tell them someone or something to do what you want. Getting out of the habit of compelling people was hard, then I found out I could do magic, my automatic sense was to try compelling the candle to do what I instructed it to do." he explained.

"Would you be able to do it even if you didn't want the candle to light?" Vincent asked.

"Compulsion doesn't work that way." Damon frowned.

"Let me get this straight. You are compelling the object to do what you want in Latin, that is all." Vincent asked.

"Well I ask the spirits because Bonnie did, don't know if it works without asking them." Damon shrugged.

"Try it without asking the spirits, because I don't think you are drawing on their power." Freya told him. "I use a different type of magic, and I don't need to draw on the spirits. Maybe your magic is more like mine." she suggested, blowing out the candle.

"Okay." Damon nodded turning to look at the candle once more. "Ignem accende lucernam." he said as the candle lit.

"Well that clears it up. You don't need to rely on spirit magic." Vincent said looking impressed. "So if you just say what you want to happen in Latin it does?" he asked.

Damon frowned. "Not entirely sure. I did ask the kids to clear their rooms in Latin once, but it didn't work. They just looked at me like I'd grown another head." he said as Freya simply raised an eyebrow. "What?!" Damon asked as he saw the expression on her face.

"Magic doesn't work like that. Maybe controlling inanimate objects, but people, animals and environments won't respond the same." Freya explained. "Have you documented what does and doesn't work?" she asked as Damon shook his head.

"Traveler magic died two thousand years ago." Vincent explained. "We have very little information about how they practiced it before the great divide. We know they were normal witches, but how they chaneled their magic is a mystery. You, Elena and the kids, are possibly the only people left who can practice this kind of magic. Not even modern day travelers would be able to if they still existed." he told him. "We can't help you without knowing how to help." he said.

"We need to know how you can use your magic." Freya continued. "For instance you only have to use instruction for elemental spells. But how do you practice curses, biological spells, Locator spells..."

"I get the picture." Damon sighed. "Are you wanting me to keep some sort of journal?" he asked, practically spitting out the word 'journal' in distaste.

"Do you have a journal to write in?" Freya asked.

"No!" Damon replied. "Pft! Who uses books these days? I got a tablet and an external hard drive." he smirked.

Freya headed over to the dresser and pulled out a book and pen. "I'd suggest you do it this way first." she said. "In a hundred years, if someone needs to read a spell you created to reverse it, they'll have more luck reading a book than a tablet, as they'll probably be outdated by then." she shook her head in disbelief. "You of all people should know that."

"But it doesn't have predictive text or a spellchecker." Damon said sarcastically.

"Diagrams are easier to draw in a book." Freya insisted holding the book out to Damon, who eventually took it.

"Do you need to say the words when you light the candle?" Vincent asked.

"Don't know, why?" Damon replied.

"Just try it." Vincent smiled as he blew out the candle.

Damon looked at the candle and repeated the incantation in his head. Suddenly the wick lit up and the candle was burning.

"Not all spells need to be spoken." Freya told Damon. "If you can cast a spell without speaking the words, it is always better." she expalined. "This is why the grimoire is so important. You keep a record of your incantations, even if you never need to say them. That way they can be reversed if necessary."

"Well, well, well. Another Salvatore brother writing a journal." Came the accented voice of Rebekah, prompting everyone to turn around, seeing her and Marcel stood watching them.

"Rebekah." Damon grimaced. "Marcel." he greeted Rebekah's husband with a little more warmth than the Original sister.

"Hey man." Marcel grinned at Damon. "Hows it goin?" he asked.

Damon raised an eyebrow and gave a disgusted look. "They want me to write a journal." he said.

"A grimoire." Vincent corrected him.

"Whatever, it's not me." Damon complained.

"Damon!" Elena said firmly as they all turned to see her and Keelin join them in the party. Damon looked down sheepishly.

"Hey Elena." Marcel offered his biggest smile and kissed Elena on the cheek. "Keelin." he nodded.

"How do you do that?" Rebekah asked Elena.

"That's Elena's way of threatening to cook." Damon explained. "Works a treat with the kids too." he laughed.

"I remember throwing something of Elena's down the drain." Rebekah sneered, reminding Elena of the time she threw Elena's daylight ring into the sink at a party she was hosting. Elena had managed to retrieve the ring before it disappeared and she'd burned in the sun. That was just after Elena had turned, when they were at their height of hatred for each other. Elena looked at her finger where over the recent years, she'd taken to wearing her daylight ring once more, as a reminder of her past, just as Damon had.

"It survived." Elena smiled, trying to be nice as she walked over to Damon and sat next to him.

"What have you learned?" Damon asked, trying to steer the conversation clear of magic and of Elena and Rebekah's bickering.

"We were looking at chrmozones." Elena told him. "Vampires are almost identical to humans in their make up. A few minor differences, which explain a lot of what we know about vampire biology. But there's stuff in there which we don't understand." she said.

"Which is where your results come in handy." Keelin told them. "We have vampire you and the human witch version of you to compare. Which, is the closest we have to a before and after transitioning vampire. Unless we have a human volunteer who is prepared to run lots of tests before turning, and then turn afterwards, this is as close as we're going to get to compare the same person being both human and a vampire." she grinned. "It's really exciting."

"Have you gotten any closer to the issue of fertility yet?" Marcel asked.

"Elena had an idea." Keelin replied looking to Elena to explain.

"My friend Caroline, who was a vampire gave birth to twins." Elena explained. "So we know it is possible for a vampire to be pregnant and carry a baby until full term. However certain vampire don't priduce certain hormones, which is why they can't procreate."

"So why the heightened sex drive?" Damon frowned.

"Good question." Keelin shrugged.

"Maybe it's all down to emotional need and magic." Elena suggested. "However, when Caroline became pregnant, it kick started her hormones and her body worked normally for that period of time." she said.

"Which means with hormone therapy, it might be possible for a female vampire to carry a child." Keelin added. "Although there is the question of whether she'd want donor eggs or not, because I haven't gone as far as seeing what we can do about the eggs as I haven't looked into it. Either they're dead or they're frozen in time, which means we just have to find a way to unfreeze them. Same applies to sperm." she smiled.

"Are you saying science might be able to fix what magic can't?" Damon frowned, looking at Elena in shock.

"Yes!" Keelin replied. "People have their eggs and sperm frozen these days, I think it is possible vampire eggs and sperm might be in a similar state. We just have to work out how to unfreeze them. Then with hormone injections, I can't see any reason why a female vampire can't have her own children, apart from her need for blood. But for older vampires that's not an issue." she shrugged.

"But why look into this if Rebekah is going to take the cure?" Damon asked.

Elena, Rebekah, Keelin and Marcel looked at each other before Rebekah spoke.

"We think there might be problems after taking the cure." she said. "You and Elena had no problems with your first two, but you've been trying for years now and Elena still hasn't gotten pregnant with a third child. I'm also a witch, there is a chance I could have the same problems. I might not even get the opportunity to have one child if there is an issue. I don't want the cure if I can't have a family."

"And this is the back up option?" Damon asked as Rebekah nodded. "And the tests being run on Ben and Jess, they're not just for our benefit are they? You want to know what will happen if you have kids and how the cure might affect them." he urmised as Rebekah and Marcel nodded. "We're your fucking guinea pigs." he raised his voice.

"It's not just like that." Marcel insisted. "You need our help, and so do your kids. It benefits both of us. We're the ones who are going to have to have the IVF treatments if need be." he said.

"So you don't want the cure?" Elena frowned.

"If Ben and Jess are affected by the cure, and Marcel and I can have children without it, then I'd prefer that option." Rebekah admitted.

"And I don't want to lose Rebekah, so it's a win for me." Marcel shrugged, which both Damon and Elena could completely understand. They just wished this had been an option for them before they took the cure. That way none of this would be happening to them.

"What would you do if it worked?" Damon asked. "New business venture, IVF for vampires?" he asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

"Who knows." Keelin replied shaking her head. "I'm just interested in the medical aspect of it all. Money means nothing." she said.

"I bet it doesn't." Damon muttered under his breath.

"I heard that." Marcel snapped. "This is just for us." he assured them. "The only people who will benefit from any of this research are in this room right now, very close friends and family." he said. "If this got out, everyone would want to have kids, and not all for the right reasons."

"Can we get back to the magic?" Vincent asked. "I know this is fascinating stuff, but the magic itself is also related to these tests."

"Did you learn anything?" Elena asked.

"Nope!" Damon replied.

"Yes!" Freya disagreed. "Damon uses a compulsion like mechanism for lighting candles. Except he can do it without saying the incantation. Not only that, he doesn't rely on the spirits." she explained.

"What does that mean?" Elena asked.

"It means it is a whole different brand of magic, like nothing I've seen before." Vincent shook his head.

"Have you talked it over with Kol?" Rebekah asked as Freya shook her head.

"We've only just found out about it." Freya told her. "We've only tried a basic elemental spell." she said.

"Is there anything else we should know about?" Rebekah asked.

The group proceeded to fill them in on Bonnie's exploits and the possibility of a new 'Other Side' created by Bonnie's psychic blast. They also discussed the options of who was possibly responsible, and if their suspicions were correct, how they would be able to find a willing volunteer to travel over to the other side. However Rebekah came up with a clever idea.

"How about a spell which can look into the future?" Rebekah suggested. "Surely there is one possible. Some witches use tarot cards. Or is it all fake?" she asked.

"It's possible." Vincent agreed. "But very few witches can successfully perform that kind of magic. A friends of mine called Ivy was one of the few I know who possessed that ability. But she's dead now." he shrugged.

"Well that's helpful." Damon said sarcastically.

"The future is fluid." Vincent explained giving Damon a brief dirty look. "Most witches can give it a try, but it's hard to be accurate." he said.

"Can either of you two do it?" Elena asked. "If we know who we can ask to find go to the other side for us, we can create the new Gilbert ring and find our unwilling volunteer as soon as possible." she said.

"Am I the only one who is a little concerned about what type of other side this could be?" Damon asked. "Do we even know if it is the same as the one created by Qetsiyah? She created hers on purpose."

"I said I'd do it." Keelin interjected.

"We don't know if a human can go there." Rebekah warned her. "The other side was for supernatural creatures only, although Matt and Ric managed to cross over. But that was only because my mother intervened. Otherwise I'm not sure if a human would be able to go there." she said.

"The last person to create one through a psychic blast before Bonnie just happened to be the devil." Damon told Keelin. "Who knows what's lurking in Bonnie's other world." he said.

"We know Enzo is there." Elena smiled.

"Exactly!" Damon agreed. "I rest my case."

"And for all we know, Stefan could be there too." Elena folded her arms.

Damon took a deep breath. "Don't you think I've thought about that?" he said sadly. "But lets just say it is someone from the other side. What do we do to stop them?" he asked.

"Send them to the Prison World." Freya suggested.

"How?" Damon asked.

"We've got some of Josie and Lizzie's blood, and some of Bonnie's. I think between us we can create a new one." Freya suggested.

"Problem, we'd need to find out where Qetsiyah's tombstone is and destroy it." Damon told them. "Only Bonnie and Katherine know where it is. Which is a problem if Katherine is the one behind all of this. Remember, she's also a witch. She'd be out within a week." he said.

"We need to get Bonnie back sooner." Elena said. "If it really is someone from the other side, they could be listening to this conversation right now. No cloaking spell will be able to protect us."

"I'll give the divination a try." Freya told them. "I cant be certain it will work, so I'll need something from all of you to help fuel my power." she said. "It doesn't have to be much, but something which isn't of too much significance." she warned them.

Rebekah passed Freya an earring. Marcel used his phone. Vincent gave her a bracelet. Elena used a brush and Damon put in a credit card. As Keelin wasn't supernatural, she wasn't of much help.

Freya took a piece of string and created a loop with a knot, similar to a hangman's noose. Inside the loop, Freya placed the items plus a candle. On the other end, she placed a ring she was wearing to use as the connection.

"I thought you didn't practice this?" Damon frowned.

"Not very often." Freya admitted. "It's not something I like to do, because the future is too fluid. Only when we are looking for something specific can this type of magic be used." she said.

"Are you sure you're up for it?" Damon raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Damon!" Elena glared at him.

"I'm a one thousand year old witch." Freya glared at Damon. "One of the most powerful witches on the planet. Of course I can do it." she said as the candle in the middle of the loop lit. "Now let me concentrate." she said. Freya took hold of the rope and closed her eyes, a look of concentration formed on her face, however after a while it was replaced with frustration and she dropped the rope. "It won't let me channel your magic." she said looking at Damon and Elena. "Which means you must be seers." she said.

"I can't see into the future." Elena frowned.

"Me neither." Damon agreed.

"You won't have if you haven't tried." Freya told them.

"The children are seers." Vincent said. "It had to come from somewhere."

"But you never suggested we were seers." Elena frowned.

"No but if the children are, you are likely to be too." Vincent told them. "I didn't recognize most of the types of magic what I saw when I ran your tests. They could have been the magic of powerful seers from thousands of years ago." he said. "If we know what type of magic Damon or Elena would need to access, maybe one of them can do the spell."

"Have you got the results?" Freya asked.

"Sure." Vincent nodded as he pulled out his notebooks from his bag. "Here." he passed them to Freya who opened them and began to study the results.

Freya looked at the images as Rebekah and Marcel gathered to look at the results too. Only Damon, Elena and Keelin didn't bother as they meant nothing to them. But Rebekah herself was a witch and Marcel had been deeply involved with witches for at least a century, meaning he knew a lot about dark magic. However still some of the symbols were completely unknown to all of them.

"Do you think Kol will know what they are?" Freya asked Rebekah,

Out of all of the Original siblings, Kol knew the most about witchcraft in general. Freya herself was a powerful witch and Kol was only a vampire, but he'd traveled with many lesser known covens and had a vast amount of knowledge of different types of witchcraft and dark objects. He was probably the most knowledgeable person on the planet when it came to the history of witchcraft. If anyone would know what some of these symbols meant, he would.

"We could always ask." Rebekah replied.

"I didn't think we were going to involve Kol in any of this." Elena frowned.

"I told him." Rebekah admitted sheepishly. "He's not bothered about it yet. Davina thinks she has enough power to stay young long enough for us to have used it before Kol does and then they can have a family."

"Is that possible?" Elena frowned.

"Witches can slow the aging process down somewhat." Damon nodded. "I knew a witch in Chicago called Gloria. Must have been over a hundred years old, didn't look a day over sixty." he said.

"All depends on when a witch starts to slow the aging process down." Freya explained. "Most want to join their ancestors, so they allow themselves to age naturally. They only slow it down if they have a better reason to stay."

"If they have nothing to die for, so to speak." Damon explained.

"And the witch you knew? Why did she slow the aging down?" Elena asked.

"Gloria had nobody to run her bar." Damon explained. "She had no family, her bar was her life. She didn't trust anyone to take care of it after she was gone." he said.

"Oh." Elena frowned. "That's sad." she said as Damon rested his hand on her knee.

"Didn't do her any good." Damon shrugged. "Katherine killed her while she was torturing Stefan."

"Oh!" Elena nodded. "Okay, so Davina should be fine until Rebekah dies to have a family with Kol?" she asked.

"Yeah." Marcel nodded. "Davina is really powerful. It suits them both to have to wait a century and a bit." he shrugged. "Kol will do everything he can to protect you. It means a lot to him." he said.

"Wow, who'd have thought it. Being protected by crazy Kol Mikaelson." Damon shook his head. "It just seems a little...off." he frowned.

"He changed after meeting Davina." Rebekah told him. "He fell in love and calmed down. Sound familiar?" she asked raising an eyebrow as Elena took Damon's hand in hers and smiled at him. "Love changes people Damon." Rebekah added as Damon frowned. He remembered those exact words being said to him once upon a time by Andie Starr, his ex fake, semi compelled girlfriend who Stefan had killed. Andie had been a great confidant and had offered some exceptional pearls of wisdom, which to these days he still found useful. That particular piece of advice was probably the most soothing, honest and soundest advice anyone had ever given him.

"Okay, I believe you." Damon sighed. "Get Kol's opinion if you think he might know something." he said. "But if you must know, the kids don't do anything special, it comes to them in a dream." he told them.

"What sort of images do they get?" Freya asked.

"Well up until a couple of days ago, I'd have said basic things like seeing what they were getting for their birthdays or Christmas." Elena told them.

"It's become a real pain in the ass trying to buy for them." Damon shook his head.

"What changed a couple of days ago?" Freya asked.

"The kids both had one of their dreams." Elena told them. "They usually have them at the same time. Except this time it was a vision from the past." she said.

"Are you sure?" Vincent frowned as both Damon and Elena nodded.

"The both were dreaming about me and Elena being vampires." Damon frowned.

"We never told them about our past as vampires. We had decided to wait until they were older." Elena explained.

"It was definitely a vision." Damon explained. "They saw the green light they usually see when they have their psychic dreams." he told them.

"And you never thought to ask them how they had these dreams? What they did to make them happen?" Vincent asked.

Damon and Elena looked at each other sheepishly and shook their heads as Freya started taking pictures with her phone of the notes Vincent had made.

"Why is this so important?" Elena asked.

"If we know how to help you see into the future, then it will speed things up." Vincent explained. "The sooner we know what we're up against with Frank, and who he's working for the better. Is there anything you can tell us about him?" he asked Damon.

"We didn't really share our history too much when we worked for Billy." Damon told him. "I just know he was turned by Katherine. He's about five hundred years old and from England. Moved to the states a couple of hundred years ago and that's about it. He always did seem to have a lot of friends." he frowned.

"Maybe he was still working with Katherine." Elena suggested.

"Probably." Damon nodded. "I was the one who went hunting for Katherine's ID's, although I didn't know it at the time. She must have had the heads up for when I wasn't around. Maybe Frank was her little spy." he said.

"Back to the task at hand." Freya interrupted them. "I've text the pictures over to Kol, however, I might have an idea." she smiled as everyone looked at her, waiting to find out her suggestion. "Hypnosis!" she said. "You said the kids saw a green light. If I hypnotize one of you find the green light, then maybe you will be able to see into the future." she shrugged. "It's worth a shot."

"I'll do it." Elena offered. "That way if Katherine is involved, I'll know whether it's her or me." she told them as Freya took a metronome from a cupboard in her desk and placed in front of Elena.

"Are you sure?" Damon asked softly. "I'll do it." he offered, but Elena shook her head.

"I need you all to back away from Elena." Freya told the group. "Including you." she said to Damon as they walked over to the other side of the room. "All phones are to be switched off." she called out as everyone reached for their phones and placed them on silent.

Freya set the metronome going and sat in front of Elena. The only sound was the ticking noise of the metronome as Freya waited a moment for everyone to settle down.

"Okay, so I need you to concentrate on the sound of my voice." Freya told Elena in a soothing voice. "First of all, I need to to relax." she said. "Take deep breaths, inhale, count to three and exhale." Elena did as she was told for a few moments. "Now I want you to close your eyes and imagine you are in the most beautiful place ever. A place which makes you just want to relax and fall asleep. But it has to be somewhere safe." Freya instructed as Elena closed her eyes. Her body visibly relaxed as she did so. "Where are you?" Freya asked.

"I'm sat beside the lake outside my parents old lake-house." Elena told her.

"That's good. I want you to imagine there are no lights on inside the lake-house and the door is closed." Freya told her as Elena nodded. "Now I want you to get up and open the door, even though you cant see inside." she said.

"The door is open." Elena told her.

"I want you to look for the green light." Freya said softly. "You can't turn any lights on. I just need you to look for that light." Elena nodded and fell silent.

"I can see the green light." Elena said.

"That's good." Freya smiled. "Now I need you to walk up to the light and tell me what you see inside it when you get there." she told her as the room fell silent once again, except for the sound of the metronome.

Elena forehead creased. "I can see Damon." she told them. "He's on the other side with Katherine. But he's in transition. He's becoming a vampire."

Everyone except Freya looked at Damon in shock. Clearly something was wrong with Elena's vision as there was no way Damon could become a vampire again. Maybe she was seeing the past like the kids were.

"I want you to turn around and walk back outside." Freya told Elena.

After a moment, Elena spoke. "I'm back outside." she said.

"One the count of three, I want you to open your eyes and wake up." Freya said. "One, two, three."

Elena opened her eyes and looked around the room at the still stunned audience.

"What happened?" Elena asked. "What did I see?"

"You told us you saw Damon and Katherine on the other side." Freya told her.

"You said I was in transition." Damon frowned as he returned to her side and sat down next to her.

"That's impossible." Elena shook her head.

"Actually, it isn't." Freya disagreed. "I could make him an Original!"

  
  


 

 


	8. Story on Hold

I'm sorry to say but this story is going to be put on hold for an indefinite period. I will return to it at some point, but I wish to concentrate on my other stories for the time being. I am currently having issues with writers block with this story, the plot I envisaged isn't going to work, so I will have to look into making a significant amount to amendments. However I have other stories where I know exactly where they are going and I will concentrate on those first.

This is not always a bad thing as I put Inaction's and Consequences on hold for 9 months and that has come back strong, so I apologize for the time being. Hopefully it will be worth it in the end.

Thank you for your patience.

Mandzipop.


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